prayerbookproject

christians in the visual arts

I was in New York this past weekend for the CIVA (Christians In the Visual Arts) board meeting. I joined the board of directors in June and am extremely excited to be a part of all that is happening with CIVA. If you know me then you know that I am not a visual artist. So what am I doing on the board? CIVA is putting a new (and renewed!) focus on the Church. As a soon-to-be-ordained pastor I am excited to help CIVA connect the dots. It is a challenging time for all arts organizations, especially because of our current financial climate. At the same time, there is a new thing happening. We are definitely on the edge of a renewal/revival/renaissance of the visual arts in the Church. New resources are on the way...stay tuned...get involved...

If you have never heard of CIVA then I invite you to take a look at the webiste. If you have heard of CIVA then I invite you to take a second look. There are a lot of new things happening, including the CIVA network. The CIVA network is a great way for artists, churches, schools, curators, pastors, collectors and the like to connect in a focused way. Artists can upload images and share links. Churches, galleries, schools and post events. And much more. Go exploring HERE. If you decide to join then you should read how to get the most out of the CIVA network.

You need to be a member of CIVA to join the network, and there are different ways to sign up if you are not already a member. I am just getting started with my own page, but I'd love to be your "friend" on the network. I hope to see you there!

Visit CIVA Network

concert in st. paul

I'm going to be playing a concert in St. Paul, MN on Saturday, November 6. The concert is happening in conjunction with a workshop that I'll be leading earlier in the day. If you're going to be in and around the Twin Cities I hope to see you there.

Saturday, November 5 @ 7:00PM
Mission Orthodox Presbyterian Church
1040 Como Ave.
St. Paul, MN

generation to generation

I am going to be at Mission Orthodox Presbyterian Church in St. Paul, MN next month for a workshop and concert. My conversations with the event organizers have been engaging and I am looking forward to our time together on November 5-6.

During the workshop I am going to be talking about how the Psalms can help us to worship God across the generations. The following is from the brochure for the weekend...

We live in a fragmented society. We are surrounded by more choices than we know what to do with. We are constantly bombarded with fleeting images. Technology, with the capacity to bring us together, also drives us apart, frequently across generational lines. The Church is not immune from these kinds of problems. The so-called "worship wars" brought words like contemporary and traditional into our everyday church vocabulary. The result is that many church worship services today resemble a smorgasbord of options based on personal preference. In this workshop, Brian Moss will talk about what the Psalms teach us, a diverse and multi-faceted people, about responding to God in worship together. Ultimately, the discussion will focus on how we can more effectively lead an inter-generational body in Christian worship.

As I prepare for this weekend there are a couple of questions I would like your help with:

1) What are the greatest challenges we face as we seek to worship God across the generations? For better or worse, musical styles plays into this conversation...but what else?

2) How can we better seek to include voices across the generations in order to tell the story of God's faithfulness?

Go to the Workshop Facebook Event page HERE.

"But the plans of the LORD stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations." - Psalm 33:11

"For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations." - Psalm 100:5

"Let this be written for a future generation, that a people not yet created may praise the LORD" - Psalm 102:18

"One generation commends your works to another; they tell of your mighty acts." - Psalm 145:4

selah service on camano island

recording with mark mohrlang

This video was recorded in the studio yesterday. Mark Mohrlang is on guitar. Brian Fennell is engineering. The song we're working on is from Psalm 18 on what will soon be Prayerbook, no. 2.

 

"...they never stop saying..."

Image: Trinity After Rublev by Sandra Bowden

Over the past several years I have had the privilege of studying under many gifted professors. I have heard some amazing lectures. I have entered into rich dialogue with other students. At many points along the way I have wanted to blog about the experience. However, being a graduate student does not allow for much time to blog. I can only hope that as I continue to reflect upon these experiences that I'll be able to share more with you.

But the other day, when I came across the following, I just knew that I had to share it right away. In the middle of an exposition on the Decalogue (the Ten Commandments), Ross Hastings spoke about participatory worship.

Many of us in the evangelical tradition tend to emphasize grace, which is good. The gospel is good news, and there is nothing we can do to earn God's favor apart from Jesus Christ. However, when we start talking about worship it seems that grace is no longer part of the equation. Our worship seems to revolve around it being just that, OUR worship. We seem to forget Revelation 4:8 "Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under its wings. Day and night they never stop saying: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty,’ who was, and is, and is to come." (NIV, emphasis mine) They NEVER stop saying. Worship is eternal and we are blessed to be able to enter into it. And even these four living creatures here are not the beginning of worship. Worship begins in and with the Trinity.

Here's the quote that inspired this impromptu blog post. This comes from a lecture in Pastoral Ethics at Regent College. The professor is Ross Hastings.

  "When it comes to worship, we have lost something in the evangelical tradition. Worship is not just objective (worshiping God for who He is), nor is it merely subjective (my feelings about God, etc). The missing piece is that it's participatory. This is what transforms us.

Who of us is sufficient to worship God properly? None of us. Which worship leader in our churches is sufficient to do a good enough job of worshiping God? We mess up all the time. It's inadequate. Our concentration is weak and feeble. But here's the amazing truth of worship and I've come to see this in light of the teaching of Jesus as our great high priest. This is the missing element. Jesus is called the "leitourgias" in Hebrews chapter 8. He is the liturgy leader. And we worship by the Spirit through the Son to the Father.  In other words, worship is facilitated by the high priesthood of Christ...

Many of us believe in justification by faith, but worship by works. [As if] salvation is something God did, [and] worship is something I do. Rather, worship is something I get to participate in, this amazing cycle of praise that is going on within the Trinity all the time."

 

you are the only hope

Photo by Brian T. Murphy (taken on Sept. 11, 2011)

"You Are The Only Hope" is my response to Psalm 10. It is also my response to 9/11. I do not think that the USA is some kind of new Israel, but I do think that when we pray the psalms we can use the language of the psalms and make the prayers our own prayers. This song is from Prayerbook, no. 1 and was written about seven years ago.

Listen to You Are The Only Hope from Psalm 10.

You knew this day would come and still it came to pass
You saw the city burn, you heard the deadly blast
Before the darkest hour when all the skies bled grey, you were there

The enemy is real and seeking to destroy
He's waiting in the dark, his evil to employ
The innocent he takes as prisoners of the war, and they will bleed

I know that you can save, I know your love remains
You are the only hope that we have known
You are the only hope to roll away the stone

You are my God and King, you are the truth revealed
You comfort the oppressed, you answer the appeal
You take the orphans in and claim them as your own, as your own

I know that you can save, I know your love remains
You are the only hope that we have known
You are the only hope to roll away the stone

I worship you with all my life
I worship you with all my heart
I worship you with all my strength, I worship you

by Brian Moss

church: a matter of death and life

I am back from a couple weeks of vacation. Orcas Island, WA. Annville, KY. Bowling Green, KY. Nashville, TN. I am grateful.

A BIG thank you to everyone who contributed to my previous posts, why did you stop going to church? and why do you still go to church? This is a sensitive topic for many and I appreciate your honesty.

I wanted to follow up on all of this, especially after (kind of) guilting a friend into going to church this morning. This is not about guilt. I know that I do not need any more guilt in my life and I'm going to assume that the same holds true for you.

For me, the Church is God's gift to us. As Bill Lane often said, "When God gives a gift he wraps it up in a person." (Jesus Christ being the ultimate person.) If this is true then a lot of fellow-Christ-follower people (the Church) must be a tremendous gift.

But if the Church is a gift then why do we despise it? And, even more vexing, if the Church is a gift then why does she cause so much pain?

I think that there are many ways to answer these two questions, but for the sake of this blog post I will simplify my answer like this: The Church is a gift that reminds us of our life by reminding us of our death.

Who is Jesus Christ? Someone who died so that we might live and, in doing so, calls us into a similar death-life. What is Scripture? A Word that will flourish forever while, at the same time, reminding us of our own mortality. What are the sacraments? Baptism and Communion are death-unto-life kinds of actions. What is worship? A submission of all of our life and death unto the life of God.

What is your greatest fear? For most people the answer is death. Why would anyone want to go to a place that reminds them of death? This is what the Church symbolizes to those who do not have faith: death. And, sadly, this is how many Christians think of the Church today: death without life.

OK. I realize that this is a gross over simplification. Or is it? I don't know. I do know that I want to take a step back and realize that trying to coerce someone into attending church will do no good. If the Church is not understood as a gift then there is no reason to go.

For further reading check out this recent post on C.S. Lewis from Bryan Burton's blog.

 

why do you still go to church?

Last week I asked the question, "Why did you stop going to church?" There were several responses. I am thankful for your thoughtful, open and honest answers. If you haven't read through the comments yet I encourage you to do so. I think that it is important for church-goers like me to realize that, for the most part, when people leave the church it is not a flippant decision. In most cases there is a lot of pain, hurt, and confusion wrapped up into the leaving.

I want to turn the question around this week. Why do you still go to church? The rules are the same as last week. If you are still "going" to church I encourage you to share why. Please comment below. I still plan on writing a follow up post to all of this in the coming weeks.

 

why did you stop going to church?

I have found myself in many conversations as of late that have revolved around the whys and why nots of going to church. So many have just stopped going for one reason or another. I am often heavy-handed in my responses because I have found the corporate worship of the church to be one of the most formative things I participate in on a regular basis. No, the church is not perfect. No, I am not perfect.

I also realize that "going to church" is often a disputed phrase. Many, Marva Dawn most notably, have railed against the phrase since the church is not a place so much as it is a people. I don't want to debate that here. In fact, I believe that the church is a we -- who we have been, who we are, and who we are becoming.

All I want to do here is ask the question "why did you stop going to church?" If you have stopped "going" for whatever reason I would love for you to share why; even if you have only left for a season for whatever reason. Please comment below. And feel free to post anonymously if you wish. Please do NOT comment as to why you think being a part of the church is good, important and/or essential. That will be for another post. If there are any responses along these lines I will most likely remove them. Yes, I will write some kind of follow up post to this, but I will do my best to keep my comments general and not specifically directed towards any of you.

This is not a debate. This is a conversation.