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? 😉