Today I’ll be travelling down to Portland, Maine (with my beautiful family accompanying me) to do a bit of research.
We’ll be taking in the LOVE CAME DOWN Christmas tour with Leeland, Jars Of Clay, Sixpence None The Richer, Sara Groves and others. Then we’ll also be taking in a RENAISSANCE VOICES Christmas concert at the Cathedral Church Of St. Luke.
I’ll do a few posts in the next few days on the following 4 questions related to each event:
What gift does the unique genre of music being played give to the 21st century Christmas/Advent worship experience?
What values drive the making of that kind of worship/artistic music?
What are the stories being told, both in the theological/worldview content of the event, and in the manner in which the material is presented?
What contribution might this form of worship expression give to current and emerging culture, both inside and outside of the Church proper? and
What role do aesthetics, art and creativity play in the creation of liminal (threshold) spaces of worship encounter for those attending?
Hope you can follow along the next few days. I promise the worst of journalism, the best of storytelling, and the most verbose commentary possible.
Off with you now – have you nothing better to do? 
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and don’t forget to have fun!
Ah, Portland. One of my favorite American cities. Have fun!
I have read of many churches celebrating Christmas with Pageants that include an actual baby portraying the role of ‘baby Jesus’. Our first child Ruth, was born December 12th, 1981 and was chosen to be ‘baby Jesus’ for our church’s (Reba Place Fellowship) Christmas Eve service. Last year, our grandson, Charlie, born on Oct. 19th 2008, was chosen, also at Reba Place Fellowship.
But in prison no such ritual exists.
I wasn’t even thinking about babies being in Christmas plays back in 1972. This was yet another year in prison, the difference being this was my first Christmas as a Christian. The Christmas service held new meaning for me as we sang the traditional Christmas Carols bringing with it a hope for a new life with a redeemed future. Christian volunteers were a part of our service at the U. S. Medical Center for Prisoners in Springfield, Mo.
As our service wound to completion a cry was heard. The faint whimpering of a baby. My first thought was that I wasn’t hearing what I thought I had heard. I had been in prison for many years and had never even seen a baby inside of a prison (not counting my infrequent times in the visiting room.) But there it was again, a baby crying. Someone, a volunteer, had brought their baby into the service wrapped in a blanket unnoticed by the guards. I then thought, there was our ‘baby Jesus’.
The parents of the yet unknown child were the children of an older couple (Lloyd and Nita Colbaugh) who had only a few years previously begun their ministry to the prison. Even the great-grandmother, (Mom Carter) was a volunteer and had played a significant role in my own conversion, telling me that God had a plan for my life.
Life would go on and the incident of ‘baby Jesus’ coming to prison would fade to a memory, until the baby grew up and now is known throughout many countries far and wide as acclaimed Christian singer/songwriter Sara Groves.
Have a splash at Old Orchard Beach while your there!
ah-hem – that is EARLY 40’s not MID 40’s sir!
great thoughts Dan – I would love for those environmental critiques to make their way to the bands. I think it is so sad that people booking venues rarely think to take advantage of large inner city cathedrals. Mixing the ancient with the contemporary would have made such a difference here.
I can remember seeing JOC the time they gave away their stools at the last concert and sat at the edge of the stage and sang their set – we were literally 5′ away from them. It was so intimate and beautiful.
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