Secular, Sacred, or Both? - Commentaries - Christian Music Today

Articles like this give me hope. At the same time, the more I read articles like this where somebody else "gets it", the more disheartening it is to know how many well-intentioned people I know are so completely oblivious.

busy shack

Moved pianos 8 hours on Monday and another 8 hours on Tuesday. At Easthall, we have Wednesday through Saturday blocked out. My library book, Until I Find You by John Irving, is overdue and somebody has a hold on it and I've got about 200 pages to go. I just can't seem to find a second to get it finished.

Holly and my 12th wedding anniversary is this Sunday. She has a big weekend planned for us and I'm looking forward to getting out of here.

I'm supposed to be at the studio by 10am. Still need to shower.

How an evangelical struggles with a Nicodemus-like encounter by Rogier Bos, founding editor, Next-Wave

yes and yes. If you haven't read the article linked above, this blog won't make much sense to you.

There's something very unsettling about how difficult it was for this evangelical-reared writer (and somebody like me) to process this and come to the conclusions he came to.

So many of these ideas are so deeply ingrained in me, that no matter how much I begin to recognize and rant about the errors, the mode of behavior they dictate is exceedingly difficult to overcome. It's like some kind of "thorn in the flesh"...and I question whether this questionable information ammounts to "sin" as much or even moreso than all those things we are so capable of naming with ease.

The Choir- O How The Mighty Have Fallen

Wow. I can't stop listening to this CD. These guys have been in the Christian music biz since the early 80's. They've never been "at the top" like Amy Grant or Steven Curtis Chapman or Michael W. Smith. But, they are real and honest and creative, which is more than I can say for most of the drivel found in Christian music imho. The fact is that I haven't listened to anything out of CCM in quite some time.

(except to find new songs to use at church and the portico and the fact that Ronnie, the guy I help move pianos, always has his radio on the CCM station in the truck. This is easily my biggest complaint about the job...)

Now, (because of moving pianos), I'm getting exposed to this stuff and I honestly think it's worse than I feared. Of course, I don't have to worry about the Choir being played on there, even though they were some of the folks that started the whole thing...

Anyway, I wasn't writing this blog to bitch about CCM. I just wanted to say that the Choir are and remain all of the things that I love about music and songwriting and yet practice their art within the confines of the CCM industry. Thus proving that it can be done. Of course, it also begs the question: Why can't anybody else in CCM figure it out?

bloggedy blog

I don't know why I've been so lax with blogging lately. I feel like I've been really busy and haven't had time to do anything, but I also feel like I've not been very productive, either. Here's random updates as they come to my mind:

-A week ago yesturday Holly and I opened for Kelly Jones for a concert at her church. She is such a great person and great singer/songwriter. I'm so proud to be her friend and to have produced her first 3 CDs. Her husband, Aaron, is also a great guy. Whenever we see them, we all say that we need to hang out more, but they're busy too. She's saying that she's about ready for a new CD and assures me that I'm producing, so I'm looking forward to that.

-played at US Pizza last Wednesday on the patio. It was too freakin' hot! 3 hour gig on the patio and by the time I was done setting up the sound system I thought I was going to melt. It's amazing how much energy I CANNOT come up with to perform when I'm hot like that. I booked another gig there, but it's not till late September. Hopefully it will be cooler by then.

-last Friday, played at Teatro Scarpino's with 3 other songwriters: Effron White, Sarah Hughes, and Justin Brasher. I was pretty apprehensive about how it was going to turn out because it was $5 to get in the door and I didn't know if anybody would come out. It was AWESOME! We had a GREAT turn out and had lots of fun. Thanks to anybody who might be reading this who came out! I know that everybody involved was really pleased with the evening, so I'm sure that we'll be doing it again sometime.

-Last weekend I got a call from a music minister in KC who was getting ready to go on vacation and whoever he had scheduled as his sub fell through at the last minute. He'd asked my friend, Rustin Smith if he could sub, but Rustin couldn't get out of his sunday am responsibilities and he suggested me. James said that he'd cover for me at NS, so we left for KC Saturday night and led music at this big E. Free Church for two services. People were really friendly, we had a great band, and we sold 17 CDs! Afterwards, the minister invited Holly and I to eat at Chili's with his family and we had a fun.

-I finished the Calvin Becker trilogy while I got Holly to drive on the way to on Saturday. Again, I think they're funny and pointed in illuminating the hypocrisy and absurdity in some christians' thinking. However, I'm a little disappointed and a little disturbed that in the 2nd and the 3rd books, that none of the ridiculous antagonists (basically all of calvin's family) ever come to realization of just how evil their actions are. I don't know how to talk about this without somebody actually reading the novels, so if anybody reads them, email me, I'd like to know what you think.
-I finally got a copy of the new John Irving novel "Until I Find You" (see title link of this blog) from inter-library loan. I'm not far enough into it to really know anything, but I've read some reviews and I LOVE John Irving, so I'm excited about it. I'm also glad to have something right after finishing the calvin trilogy.
-I also got into a 4 day taste test that pays $150 walmart card that starts today! I'm thinking that I might use the $150 to buy an MP3 player, but I haven't decided yet.
-Speaking of music, I received my copy of the newest, independently released CD of the Choir called "O how the Mighty Have Fallen". I got it in the mail right before we left for KC, so I got to listen to it a couple of times on the trip. If you don't know, I've been listening to the Choir since about 8th grade. I've probably mentioned this on this blog before, but shortly after Vagabond Dancing came out, a Nashvegas guy, who at the time ran an independent music web-site and eventually became an a/r guy for word said that Vagabond reminded him of the Choir. He was referring to the music, but I didn't and still don't really agree with that. However, his remark made me start looking at the Choir again and realize that I think my lyric writing may have been influenced by this band more than anybody else. All that to say, along with U2, the Choir are way at the top of my list and this CD delivers like all the rest. Just listening through it the first couple of times, I am so thankful for this band. They inspire and encourage me with their honesty and their artistry. You need to check them out.

Whew! So, I guess I've been gigging and reading. I've been trying to write some lately and have made some very tiny breakthroughs on a couple of songs I've been working on, but sometimes that's just more frustrating. Ok, so that's the update.

trilogy

I know, it's been awhile. I don't know why, but it just seems like I haven't had a chance to breathe lately.

I mentioned Franky Schaeffer in my last blog, and in reading Sham Pearls I got curious about what Frank has been up to. By googling, I found his web-site and was pleasantly surprised to find out that he'd written two sequals to a novel that Holly and I had both read and enjoyed a number of years ago.

Portofino is about a family of missionaries to Switzerland and their yearly vacation to Portofino, Italy. The main protagonist is the youngest son, Calvin. I borrowed the book from the library back when we lived in Manhattan, and enjoyed it so much that I made Holly read it and she liked it to.

Well, when I found out there were two more books, I got on half.com and ordered the complete trilogy right away. Portofino got here first, which was good because I wanted to read it again before I dove into the others.

Wow! I enjoyed it so much the 2nd time. It's funny and touching and honest and completely engaging.

I just finished the 2nd book, Zermatt, and was a little disappointed with some repetition early on, found pure reading gold about 3/4 through and then was horribly disappointed by the ending! As elated as I was with some of the story 3/4 in, the ending really made me angry. Because of all this, I started the 3rd book right away in hopes that it would resolve the some of the things that pissed me off so badly.

Anyway, follow the link above. Great summer reading novels for you.

Brian McLaren and realizing how Franky Shaeffer has influenced my life.

I found another article about McLaren. Believe it or not, I still think he's got good things to say.

Saturday night I was so tired that I couldn't keep my eyes open as I was reading Faulkner in bed. As soon as I turned out the light, I was wide awake. This happens to me sometimes when I've got something weighing on my mind. The weird thing is that the other night, I really didn't have anything tumbling around, I just couldn't fall asleep. It was so frustrating. So, I rolled around for a couple hours, and then I thought that I could go read something like C. S. Lewis (which makes my brain hurt which makes me sleepy) and I could fall asleep.

That may have worked, but when I went to get some Lewis, I picked up a book by Franky (son of Francis) Schaeffer, instead. I know that I read his previous book, Addicted to Mediocrity, for a class in college. I also remember that I liked it so much, I read Sham Pearls before Real Swine, but the could have been 10 years ago or more. Anyway, I picked up Sham Pearls and read for like 3 hours.

I so needed to read that. I hadn't realized how much Franky had influenced my personal philosophy of the relationships between art, christianity, and commerce. It was like reading my own manifesto.

At the time, Franky was a film maker trying to do good work, build up his resume and hoping for the opportunities to work on bigger and better projects. His frustrations with small-minded, ignorant christians, cherishing of small successes, and struggles to make some kind of living with his art uncannily mirrors my life.

Obviously, when I read that book 10-some years ago, I picked up lots of his philosophy. When I read the other night, I received some needed encouragement and some tools to deal.

Now, if I would have just got some sleep...

Over the Rhine trip to St. Louis

I don't know what it is, but as I get older, sleep doesn't seem to be as easy as it used to be. Last night, I was really tired, but when i went to bed, I just couldn't fall asleep. That happens once in awhile and it's incredibly frustrating.

Last friday, two of my friends, Jess and Kendra and I loaded into Kendra's cool Santa Fe and drove to St. Louis. My biggest reason for going was to get to hang out with my sister a little bit, but the whole idea for going came from Jessica wanting to go see this band, Over the Rhine. I'd heard of OTR and listened to their music a little bit, but I can't say I was a big fan. However, I thought it would be fun to go see my sister, C, and check out this group.

The show as at this REALLy cool club called the Duck Room which is in the basement of a bar/grill. We were lucky in that we got into the concert, got seats and a table and were able to eat our dinner while waiting for the show to start.

OTR were really great. They're a married couple that write together and he plays predominantly piano and she plays some acoustic. They also had a lead player, drummer, and another girl who sang some bgvs. Their music is pretty mellow, very folky and a little jazzy at times. But mostly, I'd describe it as piano-based folk.

What struck me the most and what has been itching in my brain since seeing them boils down to 2 things: 1) How did they get themselves and their charming, thoughtful, spiritual music heard by this group of people in St. Louis who obviously love it? 2)How do they get away with being so open and honest about the obvious emphasis they put on their christian faith they hold onto?

The first question has to do with marketing, luck, providence and a whole slew of things that I ponder all the time and still can't figure out, so for the time being, I'm not going to let that leak out of my brain onto this blog. However, the 2nd question could be pertinent here.

Unfortunately, their ability to be honest with their faith with their audience, of which I am sure was made up of some Christians and some not, frankly made me a little jealous. It makes me wonder how much they have had to deal with their own "SWs".

I know that nobody wants to talk about him and some who read here will be disappointed that I'm bringing him up. It's obvious from SW's own blog and the most recent comments he's left here (that I deleted as fast as I could) that he really has no care with being helpful or constructive and that trying to deal with him directly just feeds his cravings for attention and controversy. Because of this, I will try not to respond to SW's previous or future statements in hopes that the lack of attention will simply keep him away. However, SW's rants toward and about me bring into focus personal struggle for me that I still can't figure out how to resolve.

I've never been concerned with the thought that SW just doesn't like me. Believe me, I've known plenty of people who don't like me and don't like my music. That comes with the territory. I'm used to it.

But, I think at the bottom of his problems with me is the belief that as an artist, I'm just not being Christian enough for him to see any validity in what I'm trying to do with my music. More than anything, as an artist, I want to be understood, and this judgement that I sense shows SW's lack in understanding. And my dealing with him has been because I want him (and any number of others who might have the same types of questions/concerns) to understand, even if he may not agree. (I will add that in this particular medium, I don't believe that SW specifically, is capable of understanding. That's why it's not worth trying to get him to understand him while he continues to feel it necessary to maintain the charade of his anonymity.)

It is interesting that in my experiences of sharing my songs and music the most honestly and transperantly, it is usually the non-christians that have responded with most enthusiasm and support even of music expressing a belief system that that they may not share. If/when dissenting voices are heard, they have invariably come from the "christian" likes of SW. And I'm still not sure how to deal with this.

Disclaimer: Words cannot express the awareness and gratitude I feel for the support of the majority of the people that happen to read this blog. I know that you "get it" and I'm so glad you're my friends and I don't want to make light of the emotional support you've sent my way. Unfortunately, the attitudes by the likes of SW "stick in my craw" and I'm still trying to figure out how to get people like him to "get it" like you all. Thanks for putting up with my struggle.

busy producer

So, last week, I finally finished Alina Clark's CD that I started way back in September. YAY! I'm pretty proud of the production and she's been selling CDs last weekend, so everybody's pretty happy.

Sunday night, I was out at the studio till about 4am recording organ, piano, melodica, accordian, and even bgvs(on one song) on Justin Brasher's CD. He's leaving this Thursday to go to a wedding where he's already pre-sold 25 CDs, so we've got to get the master in the mail overnight to my contact to get his CDs back here. Chris is going to be up most of the night mastering and we're going to do any final tweaks tomorrow before 5:30pm. (final pickup for FEDEX at Justin's work). whew!

Oh yea, and after staying up till 4am this morning, I got up at 8:30 to go move a piano!

Now, if I could just figure out how to make all this start paying me some REAL money.

THEOOZE - Counter Consumer Culture

If you haven't yet, click the title of this blog and read the article.

I don't usually read this web-site and when I do, it usually annoys me. However, I thought this was well written and makes a good point. I've often thought about this very thing when we were doing a bunch of camps and hearing all the same things over and over being said to youth groups at church camp. In some very real ways, this has to do with why I'm glad we're not doing camps anymore.

That's about all I have to say about it right now.

I think I made a mistake...

So, I had that wisdom tooth pulled on Monday. Took it easy that day, Tuesday, things were better. Started eating more regular. Today, haven't thought about it much, hadn't taken any painkillers until later in the day when I thought about it.

Tonight, though, I might messed up. I was out at the studio working on a CD that we're about to finish and I got out my melodica (small instrument with piano keys that you blow into that sound somewhat like an accordian and a harmonica) and was working out a part. I forgot that I'm not supposed to be sucking on straws or blowing on anything. After a little while, I started not feeling so hot and I hadn't taken anything since about the middle of the day.

So let that be lesson: Don't going blowing on melodica's right after you've had a tooth pulled.

The Last Word and the Word after That

I read this new Brian McLaren book last week. It's short and easy to get through quickly. It was interesting and I learned a couple of things that I didn't know before. I borrowed it, but I plan to go over it a little more deeply when I get my own copy.

As much as I try to resist putting myself in a box or labeling myself as emergent or post-modern or even conservative or liberal or democrat or republican or anything like that, I'm pretty much a McLarenite. He makes sense to me and has given me new and much needed perspectives on faith and Christianity in numerous ways.

This book is the 3rd in a trilogy of books. If you're a believer, you should start with the first, A New Kind of Christian, and then read the rest of them. If you're curious but not necassarily buying into Christianity, you should start with the second, The Story We Find Ourselves In. If you're happy with your faith and your Christianity, you might not want to bother.

Much of what I've read by him has been huge in encouraging me to keep holding onto the idea that Christianity can be a worthwhile pursuit for one's life. I'm now reading another book a friend loaned me that I can't figure out what to make of it yet. I'll keep you posted.

commenting

I'm going to try this again. If you want to comment, use the blogger commenting (see the little pencil?) instead of the haloscan commenting (comments (#) Trackback (#)).

Thanks.

wisdom tooth

One night, a couple of months ago, I was eating shelled sunflower seeds and my lower-right wisdom tooth broke.

My wisdom teeth all came in when I was like 21 or something like that and this isn't the first one to break. I had the other one pulled while I was getting a bunch of other stuff done, and it was one of the easier issues to deal with.

So, this new broken tooth was bothering me a little and then it broke some more (I could tell because it wasn't as sharp and jaggedy as it was). Then it started to hurt and I thought I better get it taken care of.

I had it pulled this morning. My face, lips, gums are still numb/itchy. I'm not supposed to suck or spit and that's the worst because I've got all kinds of saliva a grossness in my mouth that I don't want to swallow. (I've been spitting carefully.)

When he pulled my other one, he didn't put in any stitches. This time, he did and I think he stabbed my tongue and lips with the needle a few times. That's going to be irritating.

My friend, Jess, had all of her wisdom teeth taken on Friday and I've been wondering how she's been doing.

I'm getting hungry which is also bad news...

IF YOU WANT TO COMMENT:

Never mind. I realized that Haloscan gives me a lot more control over the commenting. For obvious reasons to anybody who reads this with any regularity, it seems that control may be really important.

So, Haloscan comments it is. Continue your comments with abandon.

This is important

Here's one for you:

How many times have you sat in church and heard the preacher say that the ancient old Testament cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by God because of their sexual immorality? How many times have you heard a preacher on the radio or on TV say something like, "If we don't stop the homosexuals and their agenda in this country and God doesn't destroy the US, God owes Sodom and Gomorrah and apology!!!"? It's obvious, right? I mean Sodom must have been the most evil because it's where we get the common term for male, homosexual intercourse, right? (hint: add a "y" at the end)

See if this blows your mind like it did mine. The prophet, Ezekial, is saying these are God's actual words:

Ezekial 16:49 " 'Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. 50 They were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore I did away with them as you have seen. (The text is the New International Version. The emphasis is mine.)

Hmm...where does God say Sodom's sins were the "sicko pervert homosexuals"? the "fags"? the "cross-dressers"? That's odd. This passage doesn't mention ANY of those things.

Arrogant? Overfed? Unconcerned? They didn't help the poor and needy...? Whose sins do those sound like...? Here's some more to think about:


-The wealthiest 5th of the world’s people consume 86 percent of all goods and services, while the poorest 5th consume 1 percent.

-The U.S. spends 10 billion annually on foreign aid. Americans spend 33 billion annually on diet and weight loss products.

-The average church in America spends around 95% of their budget on internal administration, staff, and building expenses.

-In N.W. Arkansas, just among 4 prominent churches, over $50 million dollars will be spent to construct new church buildings. (one of these churches' pastor is so concerned about the "homosexual agenda" that he wrote a book about it in the last year...)

-If everybody in America who calls themselves Christians actually gave a tithe (10%) of their income, the American church would have $143 Billion more money every year than it does.

-U.N. estimates that $60-$70 billion would provide access to basic services like education and health care to all the poor of the earth. ($143-$60= we'd have a lot left over and we would have done something actually good in the world instead of just adding more church buildings and parking lots...)

-Hunger could be eliminated worldwide by 2015 if every American would give .14 cents a day - $51 .00 per year.

This is what church should be about. This is what Christianity should be about. Why are homophobic, hate-filled, idiot biggots being the loudest representative of what the church is "about"?

If you haven't clicked the banner at the start of this blog, you need to. It doesn't cost you anything. Sign the declaration.

(a friend compiled these statistics and I copied them. So, I don't have documentation as to the accuracy of all this, but it's coming from a trusted source. And I could get the documentation if anybody wants to get cagey.)

the missing weiner dog

I forgot about the 3rd. I have a family of friends that had two wiener dogs, but they decided they needed to find homes for them. They'd already given away their female, and were needing to find a home for their male.

Another friend recently told me that he and his fiance were thinking of getting another dog to hang out with their weiner/beagle mix. So, Sunday afternoon, I took them over to meet my other friends' weiner dog. He's a good looking dog, and i think he made a good impression, although he's got a common weiner dog problem, in that he can't keep control of his pee when he's excited. The friends with the weiner/beagle are going over sometime this week to introduce the dogs and see if they want to be family. We'll see.

Anyway, that's the story of the 3rd weiner.

101 weiner dogs

Actually, just 2. sort of 3.

This weekend we had B'Ellana (sp?), our friend, Felshy's dog that we're kind of being foster parents for. She's 11 years old, been on the farm most of her life and is very sweet and very VERY mellow. We've been enjoying having her around.

Friday, my friend, Mike, called and asked if we could keep their weiner dog, zero, over night. Zero is a 10 month old, 7 lb., long-haired, ball of raging spazz. It was pretty funny watching ritalin child Zero trying to get old maid, B'Ellana to pay attention to him.

Both good dogs; both made us a little sad that Petey's not around. He was "The Legend" after all.

In other news...

I had the opportunity to spend some time in the presence of SW this weekend! (and i don't mean "Star Wars")

I've tried and tried to get him to admit his identity to me, but, alas: he failed. Even when he knows that I know who he is, he can't work up the guts to come clean. His countenance toward me this weekend, while justified because I'd made it clear to him that I'm through with his game and wouldn't put up with it online or in person, spoke plainly in confirmation of his identity.

In some ways, I'm sad for him. Honestly, it would be difficult for me to accept him as a friend at this point. Not because of the things he's said, but because of his refusal to speak to me in person, as a friend should.

Seriously, I think it would be exceedingly difficult to build any meaningful relationships with anybody if one were prone to handling communication and relationships in this way. I hope he's able to build some nurturing, authentic relationships with somebody. He should just realize that it's probably not going to be with me.

peace to you, SW.

interesting conversations

Not long ago, I had an exceedingly interesting conversation with a long time acquaintance about being a songwriter/artist and the tension between faithfully expressing one's art while living out one's faith, while trying to balance marketing and commerce. (we'll call this artist, "V".)

Our conversation took a turn down a rabbit hole of assessing and discussing mutual concerns and critiques (and criticisms) of the protestant church of today. I found myself on the receiving end of a passionate diatribe of the dismal state of the church. Now, for the most part, I agree with V. However, I’m usually the one getting all worked up over this sort of thing and spewing all over somebody else. This time, I found myself trying to assure her that things were bad, but not hopeless. I found myself defending the pockets of promise that I’ve seen and hope for that keep me holding on to the idea of church. Weird…

I’m so critical and cynical. I hate to align myself with virtually any ideology or philosophy because I know that any ideology or philosophy will always be incomplete or in some cases, even wrong.

There is a movement in Christendom termed “Emergent”. The funny thing is that most of the major proponents of the ideas represented don’t like accepting the branding either. But, for lack of better terminology, we’ll use it.

I’ve found about 3 primary responses to all this “emergent” talk in many believers that I know:

1) The response of people a little bit older than me, or people of maybe a little bit more conventional faith than me, regard emergent talk as something they’ve already considered and dealt with and found a way to live with. It’s just “the same old thing” put into a newer language that is somehow sparking the passion and imagination of some “younger” believers.

2) Another common response repeated by some older believers, but even more often people that seem to be a few years younger than me, is a response that all this emergent stuff is just the new church fad. It’s just dressing everything up new and different and trying to make church “cool” and “relevant” to the current generation just like all the “adult contemporary” services in the ‘80s & ‘90s were trying to do.

3) The final response that I’ve actually seen much less than I expected to see is one of distrust and fear of all this emergent stuff. Some of the emergent stuff, when taken superficially flies in the face of what many (myself included) have always been taught and have always believed. In many ways and many times, some of the emergent stuff could be perceived as watering down and softening the truth of the gospel.

As I (poorly) tried to articulate these responses, they seem less different from each other, but practically the same, with just minor shifts in motivation. Mostly, all 3 seem to exhibit either some ignorance or else flippant disregard for the ideology.

The first response seems very benign. It’s not denying anything, is pretty positive, and seems to allow the emergent seeker to continue his own path without hindrance. My issue with this is that this emergent talk fires me up and stirs passion in me for things to be much much different than the way they are. If you’ve already considered all this and wrestled it to the ground, either you and I are understanding the whole thing a lot differently, or you’d be fired up and passionate about wanting things different, too. And if you did understand it the way I seem to, you would be helping me try to make it different instead of patting me on the head and saying, “That’s nice. Someday you’ll come to the place of serenity and wisdom, like me.”

The 2nd response, which I teeter on the brink, seems very critical and very cynical and not really helpful. However, I know that I don’t want or need things to just look different on the outside. The things I’ve read seem to point to a subtle, but profound shift in perspective that, when grasped, seems to protect the implementation of these ideas from just being faddish. I hold on to the belief that there must be SOMEBODY out there who thinks in similar ways that I do. And where else would I find them without realizing that there will be “posers” in the emergent movement just like anywhere else?

As I said, I’ve seen much less of the 3rd response than I expected, but I think that sometimes the first 2 responses are used to mask the fear underneath. I have one friend who, to my knowledge, has yet to read any of the books I’ve suggested, but who has sent me a number of links and articles actively renouncing the very authors I’m promoting. I don’t hold this against him, and I’ll still love him even if he never reads any of these books. In fact, the articles he’s sent me just seem to illustrate an ignorance on the part of the critics.

Ugh. Sometimes this blog shows me just how much my writing has atrophied. Good thing I’m not really interested in trying to go back to school. Or seminary.