Amazing God: You Care For Every Heavy Heart
Brenton Brown

Sometimes it feels as if the burdens of this life are just too heavy to bear. Sometimes they weigh down on us so hard that the thought of anyone being able to carry them seems ludicrous. And then realizing that this kind of suffering is occurring across the world in thousands of cultures and millions of homes staggers and overwhelms us. Surely there are no hands strong enough to carry the weight of the world.

As a worship leader I have the privilege of traveling across the nations and listening to the growing anthem of worship rising to God from so many countries and cultures. I’ve looked out on people across the world who have endured enormous storms – from failing health to civil war to economic deprivation to acts of violence and terror to real hunger and real brokenness. And time and again I am surprised at the power of God to triumph over and transcend the most difficult circumstances life can bring. Worship rises from hearts placed in the most unbelievable circumstances on this planet. Are all these worshippers people of extraordinary faith? Perhaps they are. But what they definitely have in common is not the type of worshiper they are, but the type of God they worship. A God who can inspire inexplicable peace and joy in the middle of heartache and destruction.

One of the most extraordinary times of worship I remember is a small city hall packed full of Christians in a region of Eastern Europe called Kosova. A group of us from England and South Africa had traveled over to share what God had done in our country. I was expecting a room full of broken and destitute people. Women and children outnumbered the men due to the recent war, and there were many widows and orphans. The church in this predominantly Muslim region was not much more than 15 years old. But as the first notes of music sounded through that cold, neon lit hall, the place erupted in joyful, abandoned worship to the Lord. I can clearly remember hearing the sound of weeping and turning around to see my friend Marc James on the electric guitar in floods of tears, amazed at the power of God! While we were expecting brokenness God was revealing beauty and grace.

So cut to a hospital room in Southern California 6 years later. Again I can see a face so clearly. But this time it’s the nurse holding the sonogram, searching for our daughter’s heartbeat and realizing with horror that that was a sound none of us would ever hear again. A week away from her due date, in what had been a very normal pregnancy, our little girl Grace died in the womb. My wife had spent the last 9 months preparing the most beautiful little nursery for her first-born child. Her parents were flying in from South Africa. Friends were emailing her tips and best wishes. Life held so much promise. But instead of looking forward to the first blush of parenthood, Jude was facing the nightmare of having to deliverer her first daughter, still born. It was a weight so crushing, so heavy, that it felt too hard for us to bear. I wondered if we were ever going to make it through the despair and sadness that filled our hearts that day. I will never forget the long list of friends I phoned to tell the awful news. At the start of life death had arrived and taken our little girl.

I remember feeling so much despair and sadness in the following months that when I considered all the tragedy taking place on the earth I was overwhelmed. I thought about how people across the globe were experiencing hardship and loss as great and greater than ours, and it left a gaping hole in my heart. We staggered beneath the weight of grief. We trudged through each day, numb with loss and bewildered. But we also remembered the saints. We remembered the faces and the stories and accounts of God’s deliverance and comfort from saints across the earth. We remembered the songs of God’s faithfulness through testing. And slowly, like the passing of the seasons, we began to see that our God is not just a good friend in a difficult situation. He is also the Almighty, the creator of the heavens and the earth. Right now the entire universe rests upon the word of his power. Can he bring beauty out of ashes? Can he turn tears into songs of joy. Are his hands strong enough to bear not just my burdens, but also the burdens of the whole earth, the heaviest burdens of our heart? Is He up to the task? Absolutely. His Hands are strong enough. He can handle it. The creator of all things can heal what He has made. He can clean what has been stained. Through him all things are possible. He can bear the weight not just of my burdens but of yours too.

It really boggles the mind. But He can bear the weight of the world. He is an amazing, mind boggling God! His peace carried us through Grace’s death and continues to do so. His love, faithful as the dawn, has given rise to “Amazing God” and “Adoration,” songs that join a multitude of anthems of praise lifted by the cloud of witnesses across time and all across the earth. His hands are strong enough. He can heal the pain. He can clean the stain. He can turn our tears into songs of praise. He’s an amazing GOD.

You’re amazing God, You’re amazing God

You can bear the weight of every heavy heart

You can heal the pain, You can clean the stain

You can turn our tears into songs of praise

You’re amazing God

More information on Brenton can be found at www.BrentonBrown.com. Full “Amazing God” and “Adoraton” lyrics and chords can be found at http://www.brentonbrown.com/songs.html.

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GREAT WORSHIP LEADERS
Dan Wilt, M.Min.
Learning Community Director
WorshipTraining.com

Another call has come in. “We’re looking for a worship leader; can you help us?” Often, the pastor calling is looking for someone with a defined skillset, a refined character and an inclined heart toward transplanting to their church location. Most times, the request is coupled with a caveat, that the pay is minimal or non-existent, the worship leader must be willing to move to their area, find a job, and voluntarily lead worship. However, at other times, the church is prepared to pay someone, either part-time or full-time, to be their worship pastor. In these cases, my list becomes shorter, and I look for the qualities and experience that mark those I consider to be “Great Worship Leaders.”

As a trainer of new worship leaders, I make it my goal to reinforce the key skill-set and essential soul-set necessary for a worship leader to be a prime candidate mentioned in one of these two types of phone calls. Whether a wild, postmodern church experiment is on the other line, or whether it is an established congregation, there are certain qualities that run like a thread through the lives of consistently effective and authoritative worship leaders. Here are a few thoughts from partnering with these worship leaders in interdenominational, intergenerational and international settings.

Great Worship Leaders…are consistent.

Anyone can lead a great worship moment every once in awhile. The strongest worship leaders have a knack for consistently leading worship, in small groups, large groups, conferences, etc., in an effective and meaningful way.

Great worship leaders have learned how to build a worship set in a consistent and systematic way, without feeling like they’re quenching the Spirit of God if they prepare for spontaneity.

Great worship leaders are not afraid to do 6 or 7 songs over a half an hour, instead of stretching out 4 or 5. In other words, they know how to start and finish songs with confidence, and how to linger if the moment calls for it.

Great worship leaders know how to make the lion’s share of a set out of songs that are fresh yet familiar, God-centered and easily sung by all age groups.

Great worship leaders know how to finish a song without feeling a need to meander, and how to start another song with confidence.

Great worship leaders know how to gracefully transition between songs in a set, without jarring the congregation musically.

Great worship leaders know how to let the songs lead worship and give the worshiper language for worship. They feel no pressure to say-a-lot or pray-a-lot to keep energy flowing.

Great worship leaders know how to execute a set, without being too sensitive to, or influenced by, the faces or dispositions they see in the congregation.

Great worship leaders know how to choose the right song when asked to play for an offering, a funeral, or to end a conference with a time of celebration. They have large, diverse catalog of worship songs in their memory bank; not just in their song binder.

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Spoken In Secret, Proclaimed Into Younger Hearts.
Releasing and affirming younger generations is an idea gaining fresh momentum today. This is not an idea generated by the music or film industry’s fascinating with youth, from parenting or even the Church’s need to pass on the faith to succeeding generations.

Rather, it is God’s spoken intention that that those things spoken to us in the secret – the secret place of experience, struggle and character transformation – are to be shouted from the rooftops for both hearing and response. It is in the shouting (or whispering), the hearing, and then the interplay of proclamation and dedication to see those truths incarnated in the hearts of younger leaders that true mentoring can begin to occur.

An Object Lesson – Grand Rapids Vineyard North.
This past weekend I spent time with a wide range of creative leaders of faith, many being in the age span from the teens to the twenty-somethings. I was deeply aware that someone in their lives held dearly the value of passing on wisdom, faith, passion and even resources (a challenge for every generation). Before my eyes, young leaders I had the privilege of investing in over 12 years ago in other incarnations of the training I do now, were showing themselves to be strong and courageous leaders of the generations following them.

On a daily basis, someone was championing them behind the scenes, investing in them, affirming them even through their messy maturation process. Someone was unwilling to hold tightly to the reigns of their own leadership and maintain their own platform, position and function. Someone invested time in them, hope in them, prayers in them, money in them – someone was thinking ahead.

Good friends Ray and Carol Befus, I know, are behind most of this energetic formation of young leaders. I am sure, from watching the motions of friendship and relational communication during the event we just shared at their conference, that others have taken it upon themselves to see other generations succeed within their community. The life to life exchange going on was tangible, and they and their city are richer for it.

I worked with a worship team made up of such young, passionate leaders, and felt their internal courage that they had a part to play in the healing of the world exuding from them. I was inspired by the fire in the eyes of so many young leaders, creatively using the gifts God has invested in them – because someone said they could.

Another gift follows this kind of “power divestment.” When we proclaim our weakness and strength in a mature process of life to life exchange with those who have yet to experience aspects of life familiar to us, we renew ourselves and energize the succeeding generations at the same time.

The strength in us falls like seed in another life, and the privilege of watching a young man or woman grow far outweighs the privilege of maintaining our own platform or visibility. In other words, it is simply more satisfying to live this way as a leader. After 20 years of intentional mentoring, I believe this to be true.

Unwilling To Retain Power.
It is this unwillingness to retain positional power that empowers functional leadership, and enables it to emerge in settings like a local church. Jesus’ capacity to empty himself of power, and then to influence by love and empathic visionary leadership created a fertile soil in which the disciples could grow.

When we disperse our influence into others by a life to life exchange, then create spaces for them in which they can both succeed and fail in leadership with care and covering (sometimes stepping aside from those places ourselves), we are fertilizing the soil for the new growth of another season, one that will yield empathic and visionary leaders for generations to come.

THE RISE OF THE WORSHIP ARTISAN
By Dan Wilt, M.Min.
www.worshiptraining.com – a creative studio of McManus Studios

Note: This article is a work in progress, and exists in this rendering in incomplete form. When completed, the full article will appear here at www.danwilt.com and www.worshiptraining.com, and its material planned for a book release in the near future. We’d love to hear from you to shape the book. Our apologies for any typos.

Introduction
For the past twenty years, I have had the privilege of participating in the glories and challenges that have faced contemporary Church movements, and their creative communities, in an increasingly postmodern context. Understating the rigors of that journey, the Church, beautiful and healing as She is in the world, has been embattled culturally from within and from without, challenged theologically from within and from without, and strained relationally from within – and from without.

Running in tandem with our overall contemporary Church experience, our musical creative community has had its own share of highs and lows. Artists of faith have reveled in the glories of the contemporary worship experience, powered through the challenges that came with the historically unique, late-twentieth century birth of the roles of both “worship leader” and “contemporary worship songwriter,” hobbled through the sweet and sour advancement of the Christian contemporary music industry, and raised eyebrows as many times they found creative leaders within culture speaking more artful and moving language than many creative leaders within the Church proper.

Looking for creative depth, poetry, substance, thoughtfulness and leadership in both the culture and the Body of Christ, many believing artists have left many evangelical churches and connected with higher liturgical ones simply on aesthetic principle. Others have stayed, and find great joy in serving the community of faith in worship leadership or in other expressions of creative worship leadership. Still others are at many other points on the continuum between “locking in” and “moving on.”

Many feel as though something is missing in themselves as artists, in the larger Christian worldview, and in Church as they’ve come to know it – yet they are tethered to the Body of Christ, knowing it is ultimately the only safe place to growth in health and faith over the course of a lifetime.

A Groaning For Growth, A Desire For Depth
A wide range of our internal challenges related to worship and the arts have been met with the grace and self-reflection for which the ever-emerging Church seems to have an historical capacity. At other times, deep rifts of confusion have opened up in our ranks, often accompanied by stinging salty tears, deep divisions and virulent language. Those internal twistings and turnings (as in any family) have pushed many worship leaders and artists to begin the journey toward becoming theologically and culturally conversant in our time, eager to hear from the Scriptures, and also eager to shed extraneous theological baggage that unduly threatens our credibility in a cultural milieu in which dogmatic faith is increasingly marginalized.

Influencers within the Church who might be called “creative” or “artistic” in their way of being in the world have often led the charge in the provocative quest for a faith that remains both biblical and orthodox, yet challenges the theologies and worldviews that marginalize us from culture, denigrate the dignity of all human beings, and stifle the wild edges of creative action that should inherently mark a Body made in the image of the Creator of all things.

We are listening to the ground, and hearing the re-humanizing, invigorating, restoring gospel pounding beneath the pavement – and are being wooed to both lead worship and to creatively play on the stages of our local towns and cities.

Tribes Of Creative Leaders
Among these creative leaders and influencers within the Church in our generation, I have personally encountered (in a wide range of denominational and international settings) a varied set of tribes among us. While some stripes of paint on our faces are the same color, some of the designs and markings are distinctive – and evidence significant differences in worldview. Some creative tribes in the Church are just now advancing into the world of contemporary worship experience, even within North America and Europe.

For some worship leaders/artists, they have been nursed in the Church experience for decades and are very comfortable with the role and assignments afforded to today’s leader of worship (and the musician) – typically expressed within the four walls of Church services, seminars, conferences and concerts. I myself am somewhat comfortable with the classic worship leader role – I believe it is an essential skillset, and many of us are called to both nurture and equip others in that art. That equipping encompasses much of the work to which I give myself these days.

Another ilk of creative of creative tribe, however, is in another place altogether. This tribe, often mingled among us in the Church (but not always, sadly) and often living out one’s faith on its fringes (at least psychologically) is seeking to synthesize the current call of the creative leader who follows Christ with fresh ways of approaching God, the Scriptures and the cultures in which we live.

Many of these friends are currently 1) worship leaders in local churches who understand the scope of the arts, and many are 2) artists who have a passionate heart toward the contemporary activity of corporate worship. Still others believe the primary terrain for their creativity is in the marketplace, and these, in another article, I would champion with great exuberance.

For now, I want to speak to the musical worship leader who is also an artist, and the artist who is also a worship leader/musician. Most of what I say will also have significant application to any artist involved in the world of both faith and culture.

The Rise Of The Worship Artisan
In our Learning Community, we have coined a fresh term to give meaning, strength and voice to a particular tribe that I believe must be addressed in the 21st century Church.

The term is fresh and alive for us, and is investing meaning into many of the spiritual formation ideas for worship leaders we are seeking to implement in our learning community. The term is not completely original with me; rather it was derived in a reflective conversation on the nature of our essential work at the Worship And Arts Institute with Dr. Peter Fitch, Professor Of Spiritual Theology and Dean Of Ministry at St. Stephen’s University. Our discussion centered on the idea of the artisan leader and the worship leader – and my own thoughts began to make some significant connections.

The Worship Artisan.

The moment I sensed the term rise in my mind, I felt as though a new world opened up that expressed the gift of what is now in the worshiping life of the contemporary Church (the worship leader), and encompassed themes vital to the emerging world (cultural connection, history, theology, biblical reflection, artistry, mission and pastoral care).

I felt, to some degree, understood and explained by the term, and I experienced a surge of emotion that traveled with me back through the past two decades of my own work with creative leaders. In my mind, I began to see the faces of an ilk of worship leader/artist with whom I have always felt a great resonance and affinity.

The Worship Artisan.

I would propose this simple coupling of words as a fresh title for a category of creative Christian leader that feels as though it fits the archetype of the influencer that I am describing. The term is in no way meant to replace or diminish the term “worship leader” as I consider myself a worship leader alongside brothers and sisters across the Body of Christ. The term is still useful on many levels, but is now laced with so much church meaning that I believe it is no longer sufficient to sustain us into the next decades of the Church and its role in culture.

Firstly, most contemporary “worship leaders” today are considered to be (whether this is true or not) largely unmotivated to study in classic higher education settings – settings that would typically rank with high value for pastors or significant spiritual leaders who are more cerebral in their approach to leadership (in some camps). Most would suggest, in my experience, that there is also minimal significant, helpful/appropriate pressure on local church worship leaders (or artistic leaders of any stripe) to pursue such kinds of education.

Secondly, the term “worship leader” typically both highlights and elevates the unspoken idea that the greatest call of a musician is to lead a corporate community in an accessible body of worship music.

I personally believe neither of the above ideas to be helpful in the long term. Regarding the first, I believe that many artistic leaders are drawn to the content of much of today’s higher learning forums, but are averse to the way they would have to learn the material. Regarding the second idea, My own understanding of biblical theology will not allow me to advocate that leading worship in a community is the highest expression of the artistic gift. This may “feel” right, but I suggest it show a faulty theology of creativity, usually rooted in our unbiblical ideas related to the existence of mutually exclusive “sacred and secular” worlds.

Calling Us Forward

So again, while I have no intent of replacing the term “worship leader,” I do believe that a more expansive term is needed to call us forward as worship leaders, artists and spiritual/cultural influencers. The term “worship artisan” is meant to give impetus to worship leaders to pursue a deeper mindset and skillset than they have actively pursued in our current generation, and to give permission to artists to embrace their role as leaders and influencers in the contexts of corporate worship as well as in culture.

I want to speak to a group of people who live on the continuum of worship leaders or artists in the contemporary Church as we know it, and suggest a new way of thinking about, and doing, creative acts of worship both in the culture and in the community of the followers of Jesus.

Again, I will suggest this title neither for the sake of novelty nor to express clever wordplay. Goodness knows that multiple thousands of plays on the word “worship” have been experimented with on CD jackets ad infinitum, and to a lesser degree the terms “worship leader,” “lead worshiper” and “worship artist” have had their own set of revisions. These couplings of words and phrases may do more to expose the limitations of the English language than to actually further our understanding of the role of this type of influencer, but I invoke the same language in order to help us transition into the next phase of our journey as the creative community of the 21st century Church.

More On The Term

If you would, pause from your reading and mull over the term “worship artisan” for a moment. Expect no fanfare, just a simple coupling of ideas that, when brought together in symbiosis, form a new way of looking at a previously ill-described role. “Worship” speaks of the historic worship arts. “Artisan” speaks of a knowledgeable craftsperson, who brings skills both ancient and current to the table to express that art – often for functional, practical usage by others.

I propose this working title to accurately reflect the nature of a unique model of artist/influencer/worship leader/creator that we might perceive is being called out by God in the tumult of the modern/postmodern transition. The changing shape of some of the philosophical presuppositions related to effective Kingdom leadership in the 21st century also beg for a clarification of this role, and concerted efforts to create effective forums in which this leader can be optimally formed.

For this purpose of both clarification and invitation I am committed to working through the ideas contained in this short article, and for this purpose we began the Institute’s current work at St. Stephen’s University with which I am currently occupied (and expect to be for many years to come).

What Is A Worship Artisan?

Let’s do our etymology homework to begin.

Worship. While the term is being exhaustively redefined in our day, the term “worship” here is particularly applied to Christian worship (an assumption one may make when speaking internally among those who follow Jesus).

This term, according to the dictionary means “Reverent honor and homage paid to God or a sacred personage, or to any object regarded as sacred.” In the language of apprentices of Jesus, worship speaks with biblically resonant tone of a life fully lived to the glory of God. As the early Church father Irenaeus of Lyons expressed it, “The glory of God is a human being; fully alive.” While we would like to assume that we all share a common approach to this word within the Church, it is true that the current revelation (in the wider scope of history) of “worship as what is experienced in a contemporary worship music situation,” coupled with historical definitions of worship that center either solely or primarily on those acts of Christian liturgy engaged in by a community in a service, have somewhat disoriented us from the over-meaning of the term. Worship, in our case, is a life fully given over to God, “our spiritual act of worship.”

Artisan. The term “artisan” here is particularly applied to a particular ilk of creative leader, and according to the dictionary means “a person skilled in an applied art; a craftsperson.” The root of the word is most probably, from the Italian artigiano (from Vulgar Latin artiti?nus, from Latin art?tus) meaning “skilled in the arts.”

An artisan may also be called a craftsperson, an artist-practioner, a creative laborer with a defined scope of gift, skill and productivity. An artisan can be understood as one who creates in a defined genre, or the term can be amplified to express the nature of one who creates in many genres, a “creative force” if you will. To be an artisan is to give one’s creative attention, skill, gifting and attention to a particular craft within the wider, wilder field of artistic expression, and to apply those skills to a task or mission. Additionally, many artisans have learned their craft by studying the time-tested patterns of their forefathers and foremothers, including ancient skills as well as present. In this way, the artisan embraces what has gone before in the same way the outer ring of a strong tree embraces all the rings of its history within – even as it learns to thrive within the climate in which it now lives.

Art And The Utilitarian Veneer

Before we begin to couple the words “Worship” and “Artisan,” a word about the nature of art. Art expresses truth (apparent or seeming), beauty (whether what a frog might find to be beautiful, or a human being), ugliness (another relative term) and reality (still another relative term). On one plain, we recognize that the mission of art is to reveal. Expression is valid whether it has a defined utilitarian purpose or can be recognized as a commodity.

At the same time, art can be very useful, and applied to a task – whether that task be explicit and undertaken to openly subvert a worldview, or that task be implicit and more nuanced in its delivery and mission. As the Church, we have indeed often made art a commodity, especially art in the Church, and demanded that function continually dictate the form of what is “acceptable” in church life. Years ago, I had a dream that made this idea come clear. In the dream, I simply saw one phrase running endlessly through my mind, all through the night. The phrase was “Truth is self-revealing; tell it in a thousand stories.” Art reveals. Art challenges. Art moves us by showing us something that we should pay attention to, be it the beat of our own hearts or the misguided loyalties of a nation.

The Craftsperson In The Worship Arts: The Worship Artisan

I would like to attempt to define this ilk of leader further. In these ideas, I am intentionally mingling ideas of the contemporary worship leader, the studied craftsperson who knows the history of culture and worship and applies these ideas in their leading and songwriting, and the idea of the artist who is wired to express both accessible expressions of worship and also wild expressions of art that can be appreciated both by the culture and the Church.

A Trio Of Strengths

A Worship Artisan is a vocational (meaning “called”) spiritual leader who evidences his or her primary leadership gifts through the creative arts.

A Worship Artisan is a trained spiritual leader, theologically/culturally, historically/creatively, and practically/devotionally in the realm of worship activity. Tranhistorical communities have expressed the worship of Father, Son and Holy Spirit throughout history in these ways, and creative leaders have led the charge.

1. Theological And Cultural Strength

A Worship Artisan is conversant in ideas of eschaton, transcendence, immanence, story, cross, resurrection, creational theology, biblical study, pastoral leadership, spiritual friendship, liturgy, history, biblical origins and anthropology, spiritual discipline, the sacral nature of time and pattern in both worship expression and cultural expression, redemption, the Kingdom of God, healing prayer, family and personal care and other areas vital to the formation of the apprentice of Jesus – and the leadership of others.

A Worship Artisan denies the platonic view that the world is divided into a sacred and secular world, and regards this idea (though rampant throughout many centuries of the Christian faith) as unbiblical and unhelpful in advancing the Kingdom of God on earth. A worship artisan is comfortable carrying holy ground with them, and expressing both transcendent and immanent realities in creative formats that simply reach human beings. That swath of the populace the artisan reaches may be wide or very thin, however, the worship artisan is committed to a Christian worldview that advocates that all beauty is God’s beauty, and all truth is God’s truth. (footnote)

A Worship Artisan is not limited in his or her creative expression to corporate worship expressions. A worship artisan is both comfortable with, and able to engage with, varying contexts in which the goal is to encounter God corporately through the vehicle of music and accessible creative expression. However, a worship artisan is also comfortable expressing very unique and possibly obscure forms of art that find their place in bars, pubs, galleries, the street, stages and many other places.

A Worship Artisan holds high the value of the worship encounter, and holds equally high the value of being creative-orators, biblio-theological students, artisan-thinkers and culture-shapers.

A Worship Artisan does not see a role in the Church proper as more sacred or holy than a role in the community shaping the creative policies and activities of a community. A worship artisan finds it difficult to see walls around the people that are the Church; he or she sees a world that is ripe for reshaping, redeeming and challenging through art.

2. Historical And Creative Strength

A Worship Artisan is conversant in ideas of eschaton, transcendence, immanence, story, cross, resurrection, creational theology, biblical study, pastoral leadership, spiritual friendship, liturgy, history, biblical origins and anthropology, spiritual discipline, the sacral nature of time and pattern in both worship expression and cultural expression, redemption, the Kingdom of God, healing prayer, family and personal care and other areas vital to the formation of the apprentice of Jesus – and the leadership of others.

A Worship Artisan recognizes context, and knows when to apply accessible music, lyrics and art forms, and when to apply creatively daring art forms, to a particular context. A worship artisan is quick to creatively enhance more accessible worship forms with excellence and shared community values guiding those forms of the art. By the same taken, a worship artisan is willing to pastorally enhance more obscure and inaccessible (on a wide range) forms of expression with nurturing pastoral guidance shaping those forms of art.

A Worship Artisan is willing to continually push one’s own edge creatively, and the creative edge of others. A worship artisan is willing to hide in the Church or cultural spotlight to see other voices “in season” shine and do their effective work.

A Worship Artisan loves the prophetic nature of the edge of the cliff, seeing and exposing new vistas to others, and enjoying the wild winds that blow in the most dangerous of places. The Worship Artisan also loves the priestly nature of the homefire, seeing the need to connect oneself and others in substantial community relationships, and enjoying the unique fellowship that can only come with those who share our faith in Jesus. The worship artisan loves the edge, but only when tightly connected to the safety of the people of God.

A Worship Artisan may be leading worship and not consciously know it; a worship artisan may be leading cultural formation and not consciously know it.

A Worship Artisan may be highly visible and expansively influential, or virtually invisible and deeply influential in one’s own context.

A Worship Artisan champions the artists in his or her community, and looks for younger artisans who can be trained in the worship arts, cultural arts or a combination of the two.

A Worship Artisan understands that a revolution is at hand; that the culture is spiritually ripe to hear the voice of truth echo in the best of art, the best of science, the best of literature, the best of history and the best of other academic and applied fields. A worship artisan recognizes that all human beings are creative by the divine image in which all human beings are made, and does not diminish the variety of creative giftings that fill their communities (faith and otherwise).

A Worship Artisan is what many creative worship leaders are in churches across the globe, but because of their ingrained belief system, have denied the multi-faceted nature of their creative impulse.

A Worship Artisan may be both poet and pastor, both musician and mentor, both artist and advocate, both activist and active Christian leader. A worship artisan is willing to be both spiritually formed by the wisdom of the whole Church across the ages, and has a working knowledge of ideas that have renewed the Church for millenia. A worship artisan is also willing to be formed by culture, without embracing its idolatries, and to authentically express the culturally formed styles, shapes and symbols that are familiar, energizing and connective to the oneself and the culture into which one is called.

A Worship Artisan is willing to sit at the roundtable of cultural discussion in one’s city or community, and to sit at the roundtable of local Church leadership.

3. Practical And Devotional Strength

A Worship Artisan is an effective leader of corporate worship, understanding the vital role of creative expression (musical art, visual art, physical art, literary art and dramatic art) in renewing a corporate belief system, a corporate communality, and a cohesive and healthy spiritual formation life in a believing group.

A Worship Artisan is able to step into a worship context and skillfully lead a diverse gathering into a place of both intimate and transcendant encounter, and at the same time is internally free to write and create art that does not mention one part of the trinity.

A Worship Artisan recognizes that the only Christian art is that which comes from the Christian soul. In others words, the worship artisan refuses to see a distinction in value between leading corporate worship and influencing culture with our creativity. This same leader is also able to respond to the law of context, and to express different gifts and art forms in all contexts with equal versatility.

A Worship Artisan refuses to accept the standard of creative expression in the Church that has through historical process brought us to the “it’s good enough for Church” mentality in our creative expression. The worship artisan recognizes that some art is immature (i.e. unskilled), sometimes unhelpful, and sometimes deemed acceptable in the context of corporate worship that should not be elevated as to its usefulness.

A Worship Artisan also recognizes that the standard of art that flows from themselves and creative followers of Jesus should rival that of the culture and the Church. In other words, good art is good art, and bad art is bad art. A Christian label, Christianized media, or Christian producers, in the mind of the called worship artisan, does not somehow make a mediocre expression of creativity “good art.”

A Worship Artisan recognizes that the opportunity created by the community of faith is a precious gift, allowing creative voices that exist in our communities to have a place to live in their immaturity, and to grow toward maturity. A worship artisan is neither cocky nor overly critical, but at the same time recognizes that there are different contexts for different types of gifts.

A Worship Artisan understands spiritual authority, and seeks out both spiritual direction and spiritual guidance. A worship artisan is also able to lovingly dialogue with, diplomatically disagree with, or in some cases ignore philosophically or theologically misguided voices that subtley or overtly demand conformity to an outdated (and possibly unbiblical) view of the role of the artisan or artist in culture, and in the Church.

A Worship Artisan is trained to be consistently effective in the art of contemporary (meaning “connected with its time”) worship leadership, and at the same time is trained and nurtured in other areas of his or her creative gifting.

A Worship Artisan is able to help others to determine their context of corporate expression or self-expression, and is not afraid to either let go of great talent, no matter the utilitarian function a called one might fulfill, nor to pastorally guide unique gifts into a context that will optimally serve a community, one’s own growth, and those to be influenced by the gift. A worship artisan can both lead and follow, recruit and restrain recruiting.

A Worship Artisan is a rising role in the Body of Christ that will aid us in breaking down the Church/culture barriers that artificially exist in the minds of Christians everywhere. A worship artisan takes his or her cues from Scriptures that call us to love God and our neighbors with the fullness of the gifts with which one has been entrusted. A worship artisan refuses to simply give people what they want or percieve they need; a worship artisan also gives people what one has to give from the deepest place. A worship artisan embraces both the context of Church as we know it (the organization and organism), and the context of culture as we know it (the powers and the people), and to lovingly subvert them toward a truer and fuller followership of Jesus through art.

Inviting The Conversation

Personally, I am convinced that in the early days (historically speaking) of what we are now calling postmodernism in the Western world, that the worship artisan leader will, and must, rise to meet the call of God in the Church and the culture today. As the right brain is once again being invited into the front seat with the left brain in society, the called creative leader (some are wired for this, yet have a misdirected faith and worldview) will continue to gain strength as the orators of our generation.

A revolution is at hand in the creative community of the Church, and its forays into culture. Let the Worship Artisans rise. If the words above describe you, we would love to both hear your voice, and encourage your growth, at www.theworshipartisan.com.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dan Wilt (M.Min.) is the Learning Community Director of WorshipTraining.com, and the Worship And Arts Institute. WorshipTraining.com is a part of McManus Studios, a creative initiative of author, activist, futurist and communicator Erwin McManus.

WorshipTraining.com offers an expansive suite of online training solutions for local churches, and partners with with St. Stephen’s University in St. Stephen, New Brunswick, to offer a Master Of Ministry degree and a Certificate Program for creative leaders.

Dan is an is an internationally respected communicator, worship leader, songwriter, author and trainer. He is best known as the host of the What Is Worship?, Songwriting For Worship, and Leading Worship DVDs he created with Vineyard Music, and is a significant voice in the emerging worship conversation. He is the co-author of Perspectives On Worship: Five Views published by Broadman Holman along with Dan Kimball and five other authors.

Dan’s passion is to further the recreating Kingdom plot in this generation. Linking the wisdom of the ancients with the present chapter of the Story we live out today, his passion is to expand the creativity and worship worldview of the existing and emerging Church – inviting engagement with God and culture on all levels.

He received his B.A. degree in Religion and Philosophy from Messiah College in Pennsylvania, and his Master’s degree in Formation Studies at St. Stephen’s University in St. Stephen’s, New Brunswick.

Dan also served as the Worship Resource Developer for Vineyard Music Global, as Worship Development Coordinator for Vineyard Churches Canada, as the editor of Inside Worship magazine, and as the worship and youth coordinator for the  St. Croix Vineyard. Dan, his wife Anita, and their three children, Anna, Abigail and Benjamin make their home in Nashville, TN, USA.

Visit Origins Project

I finally had the privilege of viewing James Cameron’s new file, Avatar, the other evening.

As usual, I had on my “art delivers worldview” glasses, and 3D glasses, in order to take in the whole experience as both an entertainment and educational enterprise.

A VISUAL, SONIC AND WORLDVIEW WONDERLAND.
I was not disappointed by the visuals nor the music. I was not appalled by the story line – overused as it is. In fact, I greatly enjoyed the film – it is right up my penchant alley for origins-meets-sci-fi-meets-teach-me-at-least-a-little” films.

On another note, for me, the worldview blends of biological deification (a leaning I can appreciate because of my own sense of growing wonder at the biological world, but see as a worldview that corrupts the human story), voodoo-meets-mother earth, and sacrificial spirituality all rumbled together throughout the film – making watching the film not simply a benign activity.

ANOTHER RESPONSE TO MODERNS AND THEIR MACHINES.
I welcomed many of the elements of the story as common 21st century responses to modernist culture, with it’s deification of all things machine (take the Lord Of The Rings, for example). The emphasis on the biological world, and the mysteries still remnant in its intricate weavings, is always a delight to me. The tenderness in approaching all things with “the breath of life” in them is precious to me in an age still poisoned by consumeristic views of all things creation.

The Planet Earth lover in me resonated with the Pandora lover in their sci-fi renderings of another worlds bio-luminescent possibilities. I revelled in these creative approaches to the lush life of the planet. The tenderness of the Na’bi toward the animals and plant life was, as always, refreshing to me.

However, worldview statements, especially through art, are never benign. They shape us. Art embodied in powerful stories (albeit an age old story in this film) will come around the back door of our thinking, change our views and perspectives, and shape us – while we are consciously unaware that the change is happening.

That’s important for us to know before we enter any theater, video store or bookstore.

THE CHRISTIAN STORY: BIG ENOUGH FOR NUANCE.
As for me, the Christian Story that I embrace as the human Story is big enough, grand enough, expansive enough to talk about a movie like this with nuance. As I grow in my own faith of over 25 years, following Christ as the truly human being, and the biblical Story as the story of earth, humanity and the cosmos, is becoming more and more mysterious and magical.

Like G.K. Chesterton, I am enthralled with this magical universe, and feel the pulse of God throbbing behind its micro and macro splendors. A self-perpetuating universe requires more faith in nature, than I am willing to apportion to it. The eyes glisten for a reason – the heart loves beyond simple biological impulse.

However, I know many Christians who swing two ways – one recoiling in conservatism at blatant spiritual themes that contradict what I might suggest is a small vision of our faith, and the other who simply buys the art of popular culture like a baby chick being fed by mother Hollywood – and quietly integrates spiritualist themes into a non-discerning faith.

We must look for the beauty in both the worldview and delivery mechanism of every piece of art, but then also exercise discernment as to what ideas it is artfully introducing into the psyche of the age – and into us and our children.

We don’t arrive at places culturally overnight. The subtle changes occur as movies and art are embraced culture wide, and then shape the thinking of the common person. Hollywood speaks, Nashville speaks, LA speaks, New York speaks, London speaks, Toronto speaks, Bollywood speaks … and the world listens.

ENJOYMENT WITH DISCERNMENT.
I enjoyed the film, but would be hesitant to let someone under 17 (yes, that number is not a typo on my part) see it without a clear pre and post discussion, due to the lack of strong critical thinking skills/psychological impressionability related to the worldview stories it pumps their way. For me, worldview issues are subtly invested in us with every show we watch, song to which we listen. I’m not guarded, but neither am I passive in my family’s movie watching habits.

Again, I’m an activist advocate of discussion after a child has seen a film; many parents feel as though this is uneccessary, as long as gratutious violence and blatant sexuality are not running through the film (heck, many parents I know disregard even these when their children turn 6 years old and start to become ‘movie-watching partners’). This is an abdication of parental leadership, in a quest to become our children’s ‘friend’ in a child-centered parenting generation.

We need to bring leadership to them, so that we can enjoy a rich friendship when that time comes in their late teens/twenties.

RUN AND PLAY WHERE WILD THINGS LIVE.
Cheers to due diligence, and the long haul effort toward great film making that went into the production. Cheers also to vibrant discernment in those who view the film – especially those who espouse a followership of Christ. We must not take the power of art lightly, nor should we recoil from it in fear.

We must run and play in wild lands where dangerous things live.

(Image used in this post is a free wallpaper courtesy of www.avatarmovie.com)

Tonight, my heart is half a world away, with friends who
are aggressively working to respond to the crisis in Haiti.
I don’t know all those friends by name; I do know that I am
thankful for their feet going in my stead, ambling through
airports and stepping into rubble.

It is ours to remember, that in a time like this in the world,
when poverty stricken nations find trouble upon trouble
mounting toward them, that we who bear the Hope of the
world enter into their pain – like the God Who we follow.

If Jesus’ life evidences anything to us about true worship,
it is that the God unseen enters into, walks into, even runs
into, the pain of those who are “other.” He spends Him-
self on behalf of those He loves. This is His way.

We who live far from Haiti in these moments must allow
ourselves to bear pain with them, as part of our human family,
and as another reason for the great wealth and gifts we possess
in our parts of the world. Strength finds its reason and purpose
in covering another’s weakness. This is His Design.

They are our family, no matter each one’s faith perspective.

We do not all need to be in Haiti. We must trust that those who
must go, will go. But is not enough to shake our heads and
share moments of awe and sorrow. We must make the
request of God that He reveal to us our part to play, no matter
how simple it may be.

I encourage you, as an act of living worship as you read this,
to ask what your part is to play. Then, simply respond.

We each have a portion in one another’s story. We are connected
with Haiti’s turmoil in ways we may only sense when the lights
are out and we are considering the world in which we find ourselves.

In this case of pain that reaches our eyes and ears, we are invited
by God to weep and mourn with them over what is all of our great
loss. If it were directly my own, I would wan them to ask what
their part was to play in coming to my loved one’s support.

True worship, in the face of great suffering, asks for an invitation
into the pain that God and the sufferers carry. Simply ask, then simply
respond. It is enough.

In this journey of willingness, we find real prayers rising,
authentic acts of physical and spiritual generosity, and the ability
to partner with God in the ways in which He is inviting us.

It is a privilege to worship with you, in our generation, and to lead
others into the kind of worship encounters that compel us into the
very Heart of Love, and into the very Heart of Suffering.

We, as followers of Jesus, choose both.

In prayer with you for Haiti,

Dan

Dan Wilt, M.Min.
Learning Community Director
WorshipTraining.com

It is in this cloud, we find ourselves;

smelling the dead and wondering why

there were rocks and homes and lives that moved

from stable places to dark below

It is in this fray, we find ourselves;

hurrying to aid you, poor as we are

hoping we can feed you, water you, breathe for you

before you suffocate from pain

It is in this hope, some, we live;

that our best efforts, prayers and acts

are fragrant air in worlds unseen

and delivering all a new tomorrow.

In this hope, we breathe for you;

we your family, your lungs tired

we will take in our rich oxygen

and fill your lungs if we can.

Dan Wilt
In honor of those who died, and those who live, in Haiti
Jan. 15, 2010

It is vital for the 21st century Church to recover an abiding awareness of God’s creation of both heaven and earth in Genesis 1.

Heaven is where God dwells – another plane, another side of this reality in which we find ourselves.

Earth is where we dwell – a world of sense and time, of color and texture, of atoms and galaxies.

An invisible world, and an invisible world, intersect around us in every given moment. We see and we do not see – but our spiritual perceptions lift the veil and help us to linger in what the Celts called a “thin place,” a place where heaven and earth seem very close to one another.

Earth, intermingled with Heaven, is the original Edenic model. In this interlacing, all things become sacred, all things take on vibrant spiritual meaning.

Resurrection means that the visible repercusses with power and actions made by God in the invisible. Resurrection means that God acted in such a way that imbues your physical world with meaning.

Resurrection means that dinner you ate has meaning, as does the cash you handle, the watch you wear, and the eyes you meet.

Here it is, the celebration of your life, your love and your hope, and I’m not able to be there. Though it is painful, we will do the best with what we have – you taught me that quite well. I hope that these words may give some sense of our presence with everyone at this challenging time – we are certainly here in spirit and prayer right now.

I suppose you would understand – you always did – with the kind of understanding that makes you feel like a whole person, and someone who could do what they’re made to do in the world with the right kind of friends.

You, Bob, were the right kind of friend. I remember many things about our friendship, and would like to recount just a few.

I remember us talking many times about change, Bob – and how often we would like to make a change. You wanted to change your job, your time, your resources. I simply wanted to change the world. Well, here we are, having made a massive change, and indeed we were right – change is not all it’s cracked up to be, especially for those near us who have to deal with its implications.

I remember the day you told me that you committed to yourself that you would spend at least one hour an evening playing with your son, even when your work life was hard. I took that to heart, and to this day, I remember it – and apply it – as often as I can. I’ve told that story around the world – hoping other Dads would listen. I think many of them have – thousands of hours invested by thousands of fathers with thousands of children – just another legacy Bob Horvath probably left in this world.

I remember the day we went sailing, you and Sylvia and Anita, myself and the kids. We all jumped in, fortunately with life jackets, on a blustery day in the middle of Lake Ontario. Anita, Abbi and Ben grabbed onto the rope in the water. Anna and I did not. The wind came up strong, and you and my family rapidly drifted away from us – far, far away from us. Anna was terrified, and I was, too. You see, I’ve almost drowned 3 times, and my swimming skills are poor. Together, Anna and I floated, me deceptively reassuring her that all would be well as the windswept waves rose all around us – when I was none too sure. Then, I watched you rapidly working the rigging on the sailboat in the distance. Confidence welled up within me, and I spoke peace into my daughter. Then, flying across the lake, you came right to where we were – and all was well.

I remember the day I proposed that we do another recording to the church elders. Everyone agreed. That is, except you. We looked each other in the eye, and I refused to move forward without unanimity. You weren’t backing down. Neither was I. Well, maybe I was. We waited, and a few months later you came to me and said, “Now, Dan. Now is the right time.” In short, we were all glad that we waited. I remember being very thankful for your strong will and spiritual instinct.

I remember the day at your home in Waterdown, when we sat in the sun room and talked about the deep sense of spiritual dryness you felt. We talked for hours. We walked. We prayed together. In the following weeks, you went through a wonderful personal renewal. My heart was full for you. I loved you so very much, and felt like I was able to give just a bit back for all you had sown into my life.

I remember the night you and Sylvia sat in our living room in Cambridge, giving us the straight goods on what you perceived about our marriage. I was fine until you started to address my issues – I was quite sure they all rested in my beautiful wife! With gentle care, you both artfully teased apart the complexities of our relationship, and gave us tools for growth. We took them, and we did them, and we found each other in a new way.

I remember the racquetball game I was sure I would whoop you in. That was a rough day. A man far grayer than I cleaned the court with my shorts. Let’s not linger on that one.

I remember many moments, Bob. And today, as we all gather in heart and presence of one form or another, I lift a glass of fine wine in memory of the days, nights and years we’ve shared. It is not often a man finds an older brother, a father in many ways, who is willing to receive as well as give in friendship. If I had it to do all over again, I would have learned to play golf just so I could see you smile at my attempt. Maybe one day, on greener fields, we’ll find time to play.

Your beautiful wife remains an icon of goodness and hope in this world – an inspiration to all of us who know you and have been shaped by your luminous marriage. Your beautiful son and his family remind us that the investment of a father, and grandfather, outlive his frame by many generations.

Your friendship toward me, and toward the many who sit in this room, will outlive the years we shared. This is what is meant by a legacy, Bob, and you, my friend, have left one deposited uniquely in each one of our hearts. God has found in you a great friend, and we are all privileged for having walked beside you these many years.

So, cheers to you, dear B0b. One day we will see one another again. In that moment, when the stars are not so distant and all grief has passed away, please… don’t mention the word “racquetball.”

Sylvia, you are a beautiful woman and a beautiful soul, whose home became a haven of peace for us many times, as for the many who passed through its doors. Take comfort from these family and friends – they are God’s gift to you, as you have been to them. While we are not there, we are here, for you. God’s eye is on you, and He will care for you today, and in the weeks, months and years ahead. The love of your life has gone before us – we will pray for you as you bear the burden of waiting the most, to see Bob again.

It is not ours to hold a man, to keep him from his home. Bob, into the care of God we commend your Spirit, and from the care of God we receive the grace that we need to keep moving forward without your safe, strong presence.

Today, friends, celebrate the life of a man whose secrets were far more holy, far more beautiful, far more inspiring, than anything we saw publicly. We raise our glass with you in a toast to a man whose legacy lives vibrantly in all of us. Our love, and prayers, are with you.

Dan and Anita Wilt
Franklin, TN

I’ve always held a deep and unyielding belief that the disconnected expert has less equity and authority to speak into the lives of others unless their work is authentically rooted in serving a community of which they are an integral part. Defining that community is often the challenge.

Thanks to Visual Worship guru at MediaShout and great bud Nate Ragan for this one.

ARTISAN VS. EXPERT - creating from the Church, or for the Church.