in the open space: God & culture

Here is another creative video made by some old and very talented and creative friends for one of the contemporary worship services at Frazer UMC . It was so fun to hang with that crew, heh. Oh, I really miss you guys!

This is the first of four videos made for a contemporary worship series a couple of years ago at Frazer UMC. The main players are two wonderful, incredibly talented folks (who are now married but just friends when they made this video) that I got to know while I was there. Sigh, I miss you guys. Anyway, I recently ran across it again after watching their latest on YouTube and thought I'd share it. You can view the other three here .

I finally listened to Sinead O'Connor's Theology today and here's my take: I get it that she personally may be a work in progress (but then, which of us isn't), but I found her latest work, well, quite wonderful and moving. Above is a clip of her performing the first track ("Something Beautiful"), which is one of the more lyrical and moving of the collection. " Watcher of Men " (which I couldn't find on video) is a more confrontive piece (while at the same time strangely refreshing), which I believe pulls from Job--encapsulating his " Why didn't I die at birth " (3) to his " now I've seen you first hand " (42). Personally, I would love to hear that piece played during a church's worship service. " Out of the Depths " expresses much of how many followers of Jesus have come to see the difference between loving and following God and being frustrated with religion. She also put to song words taken from Son...

Frazer UMC in Alabama is starting a new series called "Back to the Future," and this video introduces the first week. Rob is the contemporary worship leader (and all around media uber-guru) and "Doc" John is the contemporary worship pastor. Heh. If the video doesn't play, go here .

A warm hat tip to winter-bound Elliot who, via From the Shattered Drum , points to this sermon aid video which (I think) features former NFL star Derwin Gray . So, to all my friends who can’t get over the fact that I just don’t watch football (which draws many a gasp here in the Deep South where the game is its own religion), consider this my contribution to the regional pastime. Heh.

[This video has about eight seconds or so of silence at the beginning] In contemporary worship this morning, we played a video (that I can’t find anywhere online) using segments from a popular sermon by the late Dr. S.M. Lockridge . The video above (which actually includes more of that sermon than the video we used) was put together by 4:14 (the audio and higher res versions of the video are also available at that blog). For text of the sermon, go here .

Hat tip to Rob (a friend of mine who does this sort of thing for the church I attend): the first of four videos entitled "I'm a Christ Follower" (a parody of the PC vs. Mac commercials) from Community Christian Church . The videos were part of a series entitled " Christian No More ." (For the other three videos in the series, go here , here , and here .) Heh, there's some talented folks out there.

“Ever feel like no one's listening when you pray? Maybe this looks familiar. Fortunately, God really does hear us.” Heh. This video was made by some very uber-talented friends of mine for a recent contemporary worship service, one of five in a series focusing on prayer. For more on the series go here . For videos of the sermons, go here . The series will conclude February 4. If the video won’t play, see it at YouTube .

Music— that ethereal cry —is a mystery to me. How does it move the soul so? Sometimes it moves my feet, sometimes my heart, and sometimes my muscles or will to rest. Then there are times, like today, when the mixture of words of adoration and praise with music is like Jeremiah’s new mercies. When, unbidden, the composition quickens and stirs. When the Spirit wells within, bursting like a geyser into the soul and I can’t help but raise hands in joyful adoration. And that breaking out drenches me with Life, with the Father. Even in the praising of God I find Life. And that is a sweet mercy flowing from heaven. (Image: by chrismoncus at flickr ; some rights reserved )

United Methodists do communion four times a year, and this past Sunday was one of those for some of us do ing contemporary worship in the heart of Dixie . At Frazer UMC’s contemporary worship service, we used the entire service (which dovetailed off last week’s Abide with Me ) to remind ourselves why we practice the sacrament. I don’t have time to detail each part of the service as I’ve done before , so I’m just going to highlight the basics, especially the format we used and some basic points made during the service . Using “point and play” While much of the content of the service came from a rather traditional approach, the structure of the service was different than most —a format called “point and play.” Simply put, it means a point or idea or teaching is put out there and then we worship to meditate on it. Why do it this way? Because, as our contemporary worship teaching pastor John Schmidt said well, “music powerfully moves the heart and confirms what we’ve been talking about.” ...

What do The Karate Kid , a bowl of grapes, a lamp and dried-up grass clippings have in common? This past Sunday, some of us doing contemporary worship in the heart of Dixie found out. The stand-alone service (in other words, not part of a longer series) at Frazer UMC focused on abiding in Christ, and our CW pastor John Schmidt used a clip from the film and those images to lend fresh ways of understanding what’s involved in that concept. ( Get the outline here .) Living fruitful lives: After a good worship set (ack, I didn’t note the songs, sorry) and a contemporary Christian song during the offering take-up (again, forgot to note the song), the auditorium darkened and on the screens began the infamous wax-on-wax-off clip from the classic film . The scene begins after teenager Daniel LaRusso has spent days painting fences and waxing floors at Mr. Miyagi’s home. He can’t see the use in any of it in learning karate, the reason he came to Mr. Miyagi in the first place. Mr. Miyagi finall...

Last Sunday, my church ( Frazer UMC ) began a six-week contemporary worship series on the Da Vinci Code —and our first service in the series acted as a kind of intro. (Why do I blog about contemporary worship? See Doing worship in the Heart of Dixie .) Why are we doing this series to begin with? How can we not?! Our worship leader (Rob) and pastor (John) both reiterated that the novel and film carry serious allegations wrapped up in a clever story. Both the novel and film generate many questions, and through this series we want to answer as many of them as we can. Supporting elements As I’ve said before , we try to gear every element in each service to support and enhance the main theme of both the series and the message for the day. As people walked in they were handed the sermon outline and a ticket-sized paper with artwork from the series and a map to Frazer on the back (designed to give to friends and co-workers to invite them to the series). I thought the set was spectacular: th...

In the summer of 2001, my husband and I left the West Coast (where we’d spent most of our lives) and moved to Montgomery, Alabama (in the heart of the Heart of Dixie). It was (to say the least) a culture shock, but one we’ve both enjoyed and embraced. We brought many things with us (like our “Yankee” accents and California lifestyle) and left others behind (like Indian food restaurants and any hope of getting things done quickly). Another thing we left behind was Greenhaven Neighborhood Church , then a 150+ member church. I really liked that church, its informal style and how we worshiped (our worship band was made up of guys from a local rock band—I saw them perform once and loved it). I lived a few blocks from it, I was familiar with the denomination ( Mennonite Brethren , for which I was then editor of their magazine ), and it was the church in which I came to embrace being a servant rather than warming a pew. In other words, it was where I started becoming the church rather than j...