Our Institute One Year Diploma students arrive at SSU end of this week, and we’re getting ready for a great start to the year. The UK, Germany and Canada (great white north of Yellowknife!) are all represented in this class thus far, and it promises to be a year of formation and reimagining the worshiping life.
As they delve into a year of university life and thinking, I have the privilege of sharing with them in a piece of their journey, along with an entire community. It’s that part I’m always grateful for; new friendships centered around common values and a willingness to learn - which always involves vulnerability. To become vulnerable in learning means that old views of the world, of people, of God, of culture and of faith become fair game for transformation.
Next Wednesday night, we share a time of Coram Deo together; which orients us to the riches of worship history as we center our learning year on honoring God, and choose a face to face (Coram Deo means “in the presence, or face, of God”) encounter with God in our academic learning. I.e. candles, old songs, new songs, liturgy, eucharist, prayers, you know.
Here at SSU, we see the learning process as one that must mutually dignify the teacher and the student, recognizing that both will learn from one another in a connection that transcends the sharing of information – we opt for a relationship that invites friendship and transformation. Roundtable, conversational community learning aids that symbiotic relationship.
The guidance of the Holy Spirit creates a “curriculum within a curriculum” among us, and as one friend has said, our quest to bring together the wisdom of the ancients with the abstractions of the present and future seems to create a “peculiar wisdom” within our community. I like that idea, hard won as it is.
Every Wednesday morning we light some candles as a symbolic action demonstrating our shared devotion to and with Christ, and we pray for the Institute – and for SSU. If you’d like to join us today in that holy enterprise, we’d be so grateful. As a teacher, I feel very vulnerable in these times – wondering if what you have to give in the equation is helpful or even important. Yet I always find that as these stones tumble together, there is a mutual polishing and discovery that makes the journey the destination, and the learning process the richest gift we share.
Again, your prayers, even for a moment as you read this post, are so appreciated. Thanks, friends.
P.S. Our Intensive Program from Oct. 30-Nov. 10 is filling up nicely, and it looks like we’ll have a fantastic program together. Experienced worship leaders from many places are gathering for this time of deepening. It will be so rich; worship leaders from Canada, the US, the UK and Brazil will be joining us, with more possible.
Monday August 28th 2006, 8:33 am
Filed under: Brainwaves
We had a beautiful time away as a couple in Acadia National Park this past weekend; breathtaking wild beauty, running into ocean. Our friendship grew as husband and wife, and we’re determined to be a “safe place” for one another through the next decades of our marriage. (Note: Then, we ran a junior high campout and I got 1 hour of sleep through a cold August night – almost canceling the effect of the time away!).
One of my favorite moments occurred on the ocean front where the massive rocks of Maine meet the Atlantic in a tumble of unyielding earth and accomodating water. Anita sat on a rock to read for a few hours, while I pulled out my charcoal pencils and pad to sketch.
As I looked down the mile or so of rocky shoreline, I decided that fun was to be had for the taking. Running shoes on, I began a reckless leaping from rock to rock that made me feel like I was somewhere between Spiderman and a cat (a 190 lb. one, mind you) dancing over the rocks.
I ran past painters interpreting the shoreline in mixes of water and color, kids who wished their parents would let them do what I was doing, and seagulls looking fiendishly like old homeowners frazzled that this new invader was running across their lawn.
On and on down the shoreline I jumped from rock to rock, never noticing how tiring it really was, and aiming for a beautiful, small cliff face that would end my journey due to the chasm between it and the next run of rocks.
Ending my journey, a small resting place, naturally cut out of the rocks, was waiting for me. It was like an armchair cut down into the thick stone, offering me a nestling place that was in the cliff, but not so deep I couldn’t rest my arms on either side and see my now tiny wife waving to me off in the distance (I was glad for the distant company, yet reveling in the psychological seclusion this fresh terrain afforded).
Interestingly, it brought back to me a dream I had several years ago, when I stood on a higher rocky cliff looking out over the ocean to an oncoming storm. The clouds in the distance were black and menacing, and I knew that the land I stood on would be battered in its fury.
I looked to the left in my dream, and there, slowly appearing on the left side of the cliff face (a chasm I was looking into – cliffs on my immediate left and right) were the words “… a time is coming….” On the right cliff, words were beginning to appear, but I couldn’t make them out.
Then, a voice spoke to me about the coming storm and the strength of the cliff on which I stood. “Root your character in my character.” I immediately knew what the voice meant. The solid rock of the cliff was God’s character, and I was to dig a sitting place into the side of the cliff and weather the oncoming storm in the firmness of that hiding place.
In my dream, I began to carve out a seat very much like the one I was sitting in along the rocky cliff in Maine this week.
Instead of a dream reminding me of a reality, a reality reminded me of a dream – I’ll never understand, this side of heaven, which is the important of the remindings.
And so, I ran the rocks, with enthusiasm and abandon, and am the richer for it – at least in mind and heart.
Run the rocks of your reality today. Skip and leap and tumble if you must. But lose some of the care that makes you crawl and hesitate – to quicken your pace toward a new and heartening resting place.
Tuesday August 22nd 2006, 10:08 am
Filed under: Brainwaves
I’ll be away from posting for the week, as its time for my wife and I to get away for a few days of relaxation. To keep my fellow bloggers occupied, here is a tidbit.
From a Dutch friend, Remco, here is the Dutch answer to being a man. Choose the small movie; the big one takes a bit to bring in. Eat meat.
Sunday August 20th 2006, 11:54 am
Filed under: Brainwaves
Fascinating. A new film coming out, and David Byrne (Talking Heads) reviews it. It’s helpful simply to see how some who choose not to follow Christ view the world of the Church, especially its more fundamentalist streams.
Out Of High School?
Want To Develop As An Emerging Worship Leader?
Want A Taste Of University?
The One Year Diploma in Worship Studies and Spiritual Formation is perfect for a high school grad who is passionate about worship, wants a taste of academic, university life, wants to grow as a worship leader, and yet isn’t sure they want to do a 4 year degree.
Experienced Worship Leader?
Want More Depth?
Want Time Away To Grow?
Both St. Stephen’s University programs are built on community, sweetened with friendship, enlarged by academics, fired by commitment to worship and cultural interface, and led by folks who care.
If you, or someone you know, is interested, please let us know asap, as end of August is our app deadline for the One Year, and end of September is the app deadline for the Intensive.
The Institute website has all the info, costs, etc. Look forward to hearing from you!
Friday August 18th 2006, 4:46 pm
Filed under: Brainwaves
A beautiful moment for you. Make sure you don’t stop it until after you watched it all the way through. Wish the recording was a better version, but its a beautiful homegrown effort to say something important in a world that quests for happy endings.
Monday August 14th 2006, 8:29 am
Filed under: Brainwaves
What a rich time we had in Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia for our national Vineyard Canada family gathering. Our movement is growing younger and older at the same time, a rich sense of love and friendship marked relationships, and our times of worship, prayer and laughter together were great.
I ran around like a dog, but that’s what one responsible for something does at these events. We hosted the whole country of the Vineyard movement here, and most of them just fell in love with the place and experience.
The band did a fantastic job, and worked very hard; covering 6 worship leaders, many new tunes and new players to play with. Calum Rees (drummer for Hungry, Come Now Is The Time from Vineyard UK) added the sweet primal rhythms to the fest, and the rest of our crew, Tim Davidson (bass), Tyler McGee (percussion), Jonathan Baker (keys/mandolin), Holli Durost (vocals and guit), Monique Tute (vocals) and Matt Frise (violin & whistles) held down the house band fort.
We did a Coram Deo night at the Lutheran Church, complete with radiant candlelight (by artist Judi Brannen) and great sound from Sound Systems Plus sound out of Halifax.
I’m left with this possibility, given our leadership team and its quest for faithfulness. We just may successfully navigate a course that has caused great stumbling to every movement/denomination since the time of Christ. What a bold statement. We may be able to successfully pass Kingdom values off to another generation without demanding the same forms, or even the same name. We’re poised to try to counter the historic tide. I’ve been skeptical for years, but I think we may be doing it. Hmmm.
Welcome to quirky ideas on the web. To meet your desire for space, here is a web spot in which you can design your own Zen garden - they want you to meditate in front of your computer. There we have it folks: virtual meditation. No real sand, plants or sun… just digital versions.
Thursday August 10th 2006, 10:34 am
Filed under: Brainwaves
When I have no words, it seems the poet rears his head in me and invites me to choose a backstair – to havens where new language and strong feelings reside.
on hatred
this anger rises
airborne fume
so thick with years
and quick to find
the fault that begs
for justice meted
no contrary voice
nor weapon’s fire
can quick befall
this aged mist
the wound to close
from which it spews
and so this need
a heat to rise
so thick with years
and quick to find
the gaping tear
within the cowled
to burn and curse
that morbid strain
that feeds, infects
the heart extinct
dispels the stench
and heals the rip
P.S. A quote for my poet friends:
“The vocation of the poet, rather like that of the priest, is to recognize to point others to the often imperceptible grace of God; that divine grace that holds everything and everyone in being, and which alone can bring creation to its true fulfillment.”
From The Art Of God by Christopher Irvine (Liturgy Training Publications, 2005) 53.
Wednesday August 09th 2006, 8:13 am
Filed under: EmergingChurch
Good friend, and fellow Vineyard leader Frank Emmanuel is offering some excellent posts on worship history, and the history of liturgy, in a series of worship-related posts on his blog.
These kinds of ideas are very important for emerging worship communities, so check them out.
Friday August 04th 2006, 2:01 pm
Filed under: Brainwaves
Just returned from our Mahone Bay National Vineyard Canada family gathering.
What a blast; but I’m exhausted. We’re hosting a whack of friends from BC and Alberta right now, as well as family, so I’ll start posting again next Tuesday with some pics, etc.
Mike Pilavachi’s words to our worship community will also be posted as a podcast, beginning soon….
