Hyderblog

NT Wright rocks

2010-07-23T15:06:00.003-05:00

So... I'm finally getting a blog post up sometime this century... (WARNING: this blog will soon become overrun by baby pictures and the gushing of a new father... 2 weeks today till the due date!)

I'm ever so slowly getting some reading done in the large stack of books on the edge of my office bookshelf consisting of books I've bought in the last four years but not yet read. Right now it's N.T. Wright's classic - Following Jesus.

I've just read the first chapter so far, but it's been awesome. He discusses a different biblical passage (or entire book) in each chapter, as it pertains to who is Jesus is and what it means to follow him.

This first chapter consists mostly of an overview of the book of Hebrews... that's right, the NT book considered so difficult to understand that Michael Card waited to do it last in his series of albums based on books of the bible, even after Revelation. Yet Wright makes it so understandable.

Here's what rocked me about Wright's explanation of Hebrews:

"Look at it from the viewpoint of a wider biblical theology. God chose the human race to be the priests of all creation, offering up creation's worship to him and bringing his wise order to it. When humans sinned, God chose the nation of Israel to be the priests of the human race, offering up human praise and putting into operation God's solution to the problem of sin. Israel herself, however, was sinful; God chose a family of priests (the sons of Aaron) to be priests to the nation of priests. The priests themselves failed in their task; God sent his own Son to be both priest and sacrifice. The inverted pyramid of priesthood gets narrower and narrower until it reaches one point, and the point is Jesus on the cross. The sacrifice of Jesus is the moment when the human race, in the person of a single man, offers itself fully to the creator."

I love this! And one of the things I love about it, is that I think Wright's "inverted pyramid" of the whole arc of biblical theology can be expanded back out again in a chiastic form (like an hour glass, or this shape ><>

I remember fondly every year I worked at Calvin Crest the end of the staff orientation week, when in a worship service the summer staff were commissioned by the executive staff and camp board members with a litany that included these words from 1st Peter 2:9: "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light."

The whole story of the Bible--the entirety of salvation history--comes down to the single point of Jesus, God in the flesh, on the cross. But like the BIG BANG, that single point explodes outward with the power of the resurrection, the commissioning of the disciples, the pouring out of the Holy Spirit, the birth of the Church, the expansion of the Gospel, and now our participation--in Christ--in God's mission to the world! Because Christ is our one priest and sacrifice, in Christ we who follow him are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, lifting up a living sacrifice--love of God and love of neighbor--by the grace of our Loving Savior!

Cool beans.

Drinking from a fire hose

2010-01-29T22:45:00.003-06:00

My good friend, Steve Goodenberger (who've I've been blessed to see while here at the Calvin Worship Symposium), asked me, "So, do you have that drinking from a fire-hose feeling yet?" ... And he asked me that in the middle of the afternoon on THURSDAY... the first day of this three-day symposium!

Today has been very rich... but too rich for me to really try to regurgitate at a quarter till midnight with another long day and long drive coming tomorrow.

So, until I have opportunity to put more thoughts to pixels on the worship experiences of this day and on the wonderful content from Laura Truax, Jeremy Begbie, Dale Bruner (again!) and Marva Dawn... I'll direct you to my twitter page (@lukehyder) for the brief thoughts that caught my ear throughout the day (and which you can follow tomorrow for continued updates!), and then leave you with a quote to ponder from Jeremy Begbie (actually, Begbie was quoting someone else, but I didn't get the reference):

The rhythm of worship at its deepest: "Church is where the Son's journey from the Father's heart into death and hell, and back again, is lived out."

Grace and peace,
luke

Sympo times are here again

2010-01-28T22:28:00.003-06:00

Well it's that time of year again... the annual migration of worship-minded church folk to the frigid confines of Grand Rapids, MI, in January. It can only mean one thing: Worship Symposium 2010!

For the past several years I have tried to provide myself an opportunity to process my experiences here on this blog. While there have been some good moments, I have not been totally consistent.

So, this year I have crossed over the "dark-side" ... yes, Twitter.

I'll be tweeting my way (via wifi when I have it, cell phone when I don't) through the symposium--in fact I've already started with a bunch of Dale Bruner quotes and other tweets today!--so if you are on twitter and want to track with what's going on here at Calvin, follow @lukehyder, and/or search for the symposium feed: #wsymp10

Here's hoping that I can be more consistent with just 140 characters at a time instead of freezing up when I can't find the time to process every session in long-form on this blog.

While I'm here, some highlights from today... the theme of the whole conference is the Great Stories of the Old Testament, as framed by Hebrews 11 (so far in worship) and then the texts themselves.

Niel Plantinga preached this morning on Cain and Abel (Gen 4:1-16) - "A Mark of Grace":

"Cain doesn't want to obey God... but he doesn't want to lose Him either... (He can't live with him, can't live without Him."

Re: Cain's punishment from God... "God marks a killer not only with shame, but also with grace."

"All of us are as guilty as Cain, and through Christ all of us are as innocent as Abel."

Fave song moment from morning worship:
"From the first light of the garden to the endless city's rays, / God in mercy has been calling, and we'll answer Him in praise." (from new song, "A Mark of Grace" by Greg Scheer, 2009)

My Afternoon Seminar... the entire Gospel of John in 4 hours with Dale Bruner:
Ahhh.... Bruner quotes... I've missed Bruner quotes...

"Jesus of Nazareth is the autobiography of God."

"What the audible word is to the inaudible thought, the incarnate Word is to the invisible God." (from a woman in a Sunday School class he taught)

Re: when jesus spoke Mary's name after his ressurection... "world history moved from BC to AD right there!"

More tomorrow, including Marva Dawn, more Bruner (the Beattitudes!), Todd Johnson, Rich Mouw, and hopefully some nuggets from the worship gatherings as well.

The late-afternoon Vespers that was the all-Getty service (with Keith and Kristyn live!) was fantastic. As a new father-to-be, I lost it on the line from the well-known "In Christ Alone" ... "from life's first cry, to final breath" ... I was a goner for the rest of the song.

If you'd rather get a real look at what's going on here at Calvin (instead of taking my word for it!), you can follow live video feeds of all the morning (8:30am) and evening (7:30pm) worship services, as well as the 10am morning Plenary sessions with Jeremy Begbie, all from the Sympo 2010 website.

Till tomorrow... Grace and peace.

Psalm 107 song

2009-09-10T12:17:00.009-05:00

So, I'm at the Moltmann event that we're hosting here at Libertyville... and I'll post something soon about that...

But I wanted to get up as a resource for anyone who wants it, a copy of the song that I was asked to come sing right before the lunch break today.

Here it is (posted as a JPEG... the fastest way I could get it up), with my blessings and full permission to use in any church setting you feel it could be helpful:

Comments or questions... lhyder(at)boxp(dot)net

Grace and peace,
luke <><

Moltmann in Libertyville

2009-09-03T15:34:00.007-05:00

I'm glad there are not laws punishing people for blog neglect...

Just a short blast to say that our church is hosting an Emergent Village event called the Emergent Theological Conversation with renowned theologian Jurgen Moltmann. I have nothing to say about him now, but perhaps I might after listening to him for three days. I am intrigued to see what it feels like to have the whole Emergent crowd here at a 140 year-old Northern-Illinois-whitebread Presbyterian Church. I'm looking forward to it!

In the meantime, if you're coming to Chicagoland for this event, and I know you... please give me a hollar!

If you want to find out more about the event, click HERE.

Grace and peace,
luke ><>

2009-05-07T23:49:00.005-05:00

Here's an adorable video of our new puppy, Eddie, playing for a long time with his new soccer-ball toy.

Enjoy!

A not-so Divine (but cute!) Intruder

2009-04-30T16:27:00.007-05:00

Marla's been reading Jim Edwards' The Divine Intruder lately... which I mention only because it creates an opportunity for me to segue into sharing the news of our family's new little "intruder" into our lives...

We got a puppy!
This Tuesday we adopted and welcomed into our home a 4 month old Cockapoo (1/2 Cocker Spaniel, 1/2 Toy Poodle) puppy whom we have named Edmund Augustine Hyder!

He's named for 1) Edmund from the Narnia Chronicles, and 2) St. Augustine (both of which we also like because they tribute Augustine "Gus the Fish" Orviston and Eddy, the girl who turned his life upside-down, from David James Duncan's The River Why, which we just finished reading last month).

We just call him "Eddie"!

I get smirks, rolled eyes, or at least knowing looks from all my friends with kids when I mention this, but... The many ways in which our lives are being changed by this wonderful, affectionate, cute as all get out, ball of fluff intruder... we have only begun to discover.

But the other night, as we were contemplating getting this puppy while we are still actively trying (and so far left waiting) to have a baby, Marla and I said to each other, "We're just ready to have something or someone else in our home to give our love to!"

There have been growing pains (and lots of puddles to clean up), but I think it is and will be very good for us to have a new life whose needs and concerns we have to consider before making plans or spontaneous decisions.

Hopefully someday soon Eddie will have a new little brother or sister to play with... but until then all our nephews and nieces, god-daughter and other friends' kids are all welcome to come visit Eddie as often as they want. He'll be waiting for you! :)

In the name of our God of Intruding Grace,
luke <><

it's still not all about me!

2009-02-18T14:00:00.003-06:00

I'm still processing yet another "nugget" of wisdom that I gleaned from Marva Dawn during her presentation entitled "Worship that Ministers to the Afflicted" at the Worship Symposium last month.

Last post I discussed her thoughts on the difference between the "reality" of a person's situation and the "truth" of how God may be working in that situation.

This week I'm still thinking about another dichotomy (ooo, big word... just means we're talking about two things) she described... the objective verses the subjective.

This could mean a lot of things... so let me try to narrow it down a bit. Within the context of a discussion of worship (more specifically: the planning and leading of worship services)... Marva Dawn was pointing out the importance of being aware of our language and expression in worship, and taking note of when the words we are saying or singing are "objective"--meaning they point-to, praise, affirm and testify to the OJECTIVE TRUTH of God--or when those words are "subjective"--meaning they express our give voice to our (individual or corporate) SUBJECTIVE RESPONSE or reaction to God.

I found myself connecting this in my mind with what Mark Altrogge had said during that same weekend about worship consisting of (1) meditation on God and (2) our response.

Marva affirmed that both these dimensions--the objective and the subjective--are vital to our corporate worship life. However, she cautioned that we keep ourselves as worship planners and leaders aware of the fact that in the gathered body of God's worshipping Church, every individuals subjective response may be different, depending on their context and situation.

She gave the example of a worship leader at a conference she attend who said a lot of things before the group began to sing together trying to ramp them up... "come on, people, get excited!" Marva's response was "I don't know about you, but I like to have something to get excited about."

I believe an additional caution that Marva is making is to not assume that everyone is going to arrive at our corporate worship gatherings happy and ready to be "excited" about God. For many, the weights of the world and of their lives are heavy on their shoulders when they come... and it takes an encounter with the living God to lift those weights off their shoulders so their hearts can be lifted freely in worshipful response. I sure appreciated the reminder... worship is not about me... It's about God!

I think the point is well made that the balance of the "objective" vs. the "subjective" in our worship should probably lean more heavily toward the "objective"--affirming, praising, testifying to and glorifying God for the Truth of who God is and what God has done for us. Especially at the beginning of our times of worship together.

Then we can truly have--as the gathered, worshipping people of God--an encounter with God to which our responses (both corporate and individual) can be honest and authentic.

What do you think? We sure tend to love our subjective expressions... there are lots of songs that are just that. Can we be better about the ways we use them? Are there better choices we can make to prepare ourselves for such responses?

Grace and peace to you,
luke ><>

More Sympo 2009 nuggets

2009-02-04T13:45:00.003-06:00

They're like the "dino-nuggets" we used to serve during family camp at Calvin Crest... just less chicken and more theological-speak. Same crispy-golden crust, though. :)

I'll be posting and processing thoughts from my time at the Calvin Symposium on Worship last week for awhile, so keep checking back for the occasional "nugget", and keep posting comments... the interaction is appreciated!

One of the things I enjoy most about attending the Symposium every year is making connections between things I hear from one speaker or during one worship service and another. This year was not without those connections.

Marva Dawn, during her session on "Worship that Ministers to the Afflicted" discussed two pairs of concepts that are important to keep in mind when planning worship for or interacting with folks who have deep concerns or afflictions in their lives. Both of which connected with something else I had encountered in other sessions.

I'll explore the second in a later post, but the first of these two concepts she discussed was the importance of keeping in mind the difference between the "reality" of a person's situation and the "truth" of what God can do with/in them. A person with a physical handicap, for example, has to live with the "reality" of their lost limb or debilitating condition, which very well may limit their abilities to do certain things. However, that does not deny the "truth" of what God can and will do through other gifts that they have. The implication being that if we only focus on the limitations of people with disabilities (constantly praying that God would heal or "fix" them, for example) we are missing out on the beautiful people they are and how God can use them now, as they are.

In one story example, she described a quadriplegic friend's response to those who keep offering to get him out of his wheel-chair with their prayers... he likes to reply, "That's too bad, God has gone a lot of good work in that chair."

We as Christians have to be in the practice of looking deeper than merely the surface level in people. And not just in people with obvious afflictions. Everyone has something going on under the surface of their lives that reveals both their deeper problems as well as their deeper potentials.

We have to go beyond the outer "text" to perceive the "subtext" in people's lives, as Craig Barnes reminded us in his session "Moving from Text to Subtext." As preachers, writers, poets, artists, storytellers... our calling is to help the subtext of Scripture and what the Holy Spirit is doing below the surface all around us speak powerfully into the subtexts of our own lives and the lives of others around us.

Yet again my childhood favorite, Transformers, was correct... there is "more than meets the eye."

God's grace to you,
luke <><

(audio files for the sessions referred to above, and others, will be available for free download in the coming months at www.worshipsymposium.org/2009/audio)

The problem of too much

2009-01-30T14:39:00.005-06:00

The trouble with attending these kinds of conferences (see previous post) and trying to blog about them is that there is just so much to do that it fills all my time and I hardly have the time to do any of the processing I intend to! I can't post very well throughout the day because there's not enough time between things (unless I decide to be entirely anti-social... which is tough when there are friends to see!). And I can't really process it all at once at the end of the day because there's been so much I can't keep it straight, or you'll end up reading the epic longest (and boring-est... let's pretend that's a word) posts ever.

Anyway...

When I get the chance, I've decided I'll post "nuggets" or certain, brief epiphanies I have had throughout the conference and leave it at that. You won't have to read more than a few lines, and if more dialogue is needed it can happen in comments or in... imagine this... actual interaction! :)

That reminds of of something I just heard Marva Dawn say regarding technology as a "principality & power"... because certain technologies become idols for some of us, many of us have lost the abilities that help to create and build community... not a new idea, but a timely one.

One additional "nugget" for now... Jamie (James K. A.) Smith had a session about "Postmodernism, Worship & Evangelism" where at one point the concept of worship as evangelism (one also espoused by favorite worship writers of mine, like Marva Dawn and Harold Best) was discussed. The idea was raised in the same way I've heard it talked about before with regard to the Emerging Church and the way that conversation challenges the church be hospitable to the seeker and the stranger, but by welcoming them into the liturgical practices of the community, strange as they may be, and that way they are drawn into an authentic faith as lived by that community (as opposed to a watered-down version that is "seeker-sensitive").

I understand how that can function as evangelism very effectively in this culture... but I challenged the idea somewhat because it still only reaches the folks who actually choose to walk into our building at some point. My question was how does this paradigm of "worship as evangelism" permeate life outside of the walls of our churches and have a life where the rubber meets the road for outreach to those who would otherwise not step foot into the church.

As soon as I asked the question, I had already answered it... as it had been answered by Harold Best and others who talk about the continuous life of God-ward worship the Christian is called to live. Our worship--in how our lives glorify God in our daily routines, activities, choices and interactions--truly is our most effective evangelism. As we let people glimpse the new way of life Christ has called us too, we can then invite them to join us in that life... and more importantly invite them to the One who pours out on us the grace to which that life is a grateful response, and the Spirit that makes that life possible.

Grace to you!
luke <><

Symposium 2009 - day one, Thursday

2009-01-29T21:17:00.002-06:00

It's probably a factor of the very little sleep I was going on today, but this first day of the Calvin Symposium on Worship 2009 felt even longer than usual. But GOOD long! It was a very full day of seminars and worship services, plenary and breakout sessions, conversations and reconnections.

It started off with quite a bang. The Opening Worship service was wonderful as always, with some terrific worship leadership from a couple (literally) of dear friends - Ron and Debra Rienstra. Their new book Worship Words: Discipling Language for Faithful Ministry (Baker Academic, 2008) was one of the free featured books! I pretended I was getting it for free because Marla and I are mentioned in the acknowledgements. :) They put their hard work to action, crafting and using some rich, creative, thought-provoking words to guide us through several portions of the worship service.

It's a really fantastic resource, and I highly reccommend it!

The Rev. Dr. M Craig Barnes was our preacher for that service this morning, kicking off a three days of worship services each centered on a different parable of Jesus'. Craig's parable was the Parable of the Sower (or Soils or Seeds, depending on what your Sunday School teacher put on your flannelgraph). But what I really enjoyed was how he set-up the whole weekend of parables by describing parables as old family stories that get told again and again. Jesus' parables are the family stories of the Family of God. "They tell us who we are," he said. And each time you hear it you get something else out of it.

One of the facets Dr. Barnes highlighted for us this time around with this particular, familiar "family story" was the seemingly indescriminate sowing of the Sower, and the way in which that piece of the story reminds us of our one true hope : "this Savior who flings this grace so extravagantly."

This was one very full day of constant reminders of God's extravagant grace. I obviously have so much more to say about this day... wonderful encouragement and advice for song-writers from Greg Scheer, Rae Whitney and others; sharing and getting feedback on one of my own songs with the passionately Christ-centered Mark Altrogge; Keith Petersen's mohawk; new friends made and old friends embraced... but I'll have to save more thorough thoughts about these things for a later and less sleep-deprived date... er... state.

Tomorrow, Marva Dawn! :)

God's extravant grace and peace to you all!
luke <><

new life (for now)

2009-01-27T01:18:00.002-06:00

So it's only been since November that I last posted... that's staying on top of things.

The weather is a bit colder, the economy is even crummier, and the guy more of us voted for than the other guy is now President. I will relinquish the right to reflect about that momentous occasion to those who were up to date enough to blog about it when it actually happened.

Instead, I merely wish to alert you all to the fact that we've finally come back around to the original reason I began updating this blog a year ago... the Calvin Symposium on Worship is here again!

So, like last year (only probably even less diligently... if that's possible) I will be processing my experiences throughout the weekend right here on this little leased-from-Google corner of cyberspace. Hope to see you there (or here)!

pax,
luke <><

A Historical Vote

2008-11-04T17:51:00.002-06:00

Voted today... no long lines or anything. In fact, Marla and I walked to our polling place, a church right around the corner. It felt odd looking down at the ballot and seeing the names that we've all been hearing about and talking about for what seems like an eternity.

The highlight of the experience was just the beautiful day and the great walk Marla and I had there. We were really able to discuss and process the whole experience with one another. Everyone we met along the way and talked with as we walked were in great moods. I think the 70-degree georgeous sunny weather here helped.

We also peeked into the worship-space of the church that was a our polling place and we met the worship-leader who was tickling the ivories as we slipped in. What has me possibly more excited even than voting today was meeting another worship-leading colleague in our area and make a connection that could lead to some great networking and even some opportunities for song workshopping and playing out in the community!

Well, hope you all have voted, or are on your way out. May grace and peace cover our entire country as we finally find out the result of such a long and passionate campaign.

the prodigal returns... sort of

2008-08-14T13:04:00.003-05:00

Well, I wish I had a good excuse for neglecting this blog since Good Friday... but I don't. Lately we've been busy closing on a house and preparing to move, but that doesn't explain 5 months!

I had started this blog with reflections on worship-related subjects, and had moved on to processing thoughts from a conference on conversational evangelism. I have a lot of topics remaining from several previous conferences that I hope to explore here over the next several months, and will add to that new things picked up at the recent Whitworth Institute of Ministry (July 2008, Spokane, WA).

To get myself started today... no matter how much I end up rambling... I want to reflect on a topic related to the context in which I'm writing right now. I've been eating lunch and hanging out for a bit at our local Caribou Coffee. My office at the church is a humid, basement fishbowl right off our Fellowship Hall, so I periodically escape over lunch just to get where I can see daylight.

But ever since hearing Dan Kimball speak at the CEC conference in Menlo Park last Spring (see below) I've tried to get out of my office to do some work from a coffee shop (I rotate between Starbucks, Caribou, or wherever else I can bring in my sack lunch) at least once a week.

Here's why... Kimball shared a personal revelation that convicted me about the incongruity of my work habits and my preaching content. Kimball realized that his ministry routine at his church kept him from having any meaningful contact with non-Christians, so he took steps to change his habits. As our "evangelism" guy, I'm charged with rallying our church members and spurring them on to lovingly engaging those around them with the Gospel in the midst of their daily lives. However, as someone whose entire weekly routine and network of daily contacts includes almost NO interaction with anyone outside of the context of the church, I have walled myself up into a lifestyle that means I have no opportunity to actually practice what I encourage others to do. I have almost no weekly contact with anyone who is not an active part of our church community. (I could maybe could my weekly Ultimate frisbee pick-up game by the lake in Milwaukee... but I've been out of town and missed it so much this Summer I bet those guys hardly remember who I am anymore... plus I'll be moving soon and will need to find a new pick up game... anyone know of one in Lake County, IL?)

Hence the conviction. Since Kimball's talk, I have felt the need to find regular times in my weekly routine that get me outside the church walls and into places where I can have at least the chance to interact with other people in the community.

So, how am I doing? Well, that's what I'm reflecting about today, sitting here at Caribou. I acheived part one of the goal, I got out of the building for lunch... but what I'm not feeling so good about is what I did once I got here (and quite frankly, what I've done every time I come into a place like this). I walked in, ordered coffee and bantered a bit with the friendly barista whom has served me several times before. But then I set myself up in a corner, pulled out my computer and my lunch, put my headphones in and instantly disappeared into my own world.

So the questions I'm asking myself now (which I won't try to answer today... gotta let 'em stew... with you and with me)... Does getting outside of the church walls do any good (for me or for others) if I'm not actually having any real conversations with any of the people with whom I come into contact? How can I strike up conversations or build relationships with strangers who, like me, come in, do their own thing, and get out? Are there better choices I can make with this plan, like going to the same coffee shop at the same time and day each week? Can my budget afford that many mochas?

Not that I was getting any comments before my unintended hiatus... but if you have any thoughts to contribute to this discussion, please, comment away.

Glad to be back.

a snow-bound Good Friday

2008-03-21T16:36:00.002-05:00

The stuff of Holy Week and all the preparations for it has kept me away from the blog lately, I apologize.

Today the "first day of Spring" got a rather cold welcome, as one of the biggest snow storms of the entire season blew in last night. It will dump up over a foot in some areas by the time it's all said and done. It's as if the cold of Winter is trying to hold off the new life of Spring as long as it possibly can, smothering it under a frozen blanket.

Today is also Good Friday, the day Christians everywhere remember the death of Jesus of Nazareth on a cross. On that hill almost 2000 years ago, Death tried to deliver its knock-out blow to the Son of God. Followers who had so much hope for what might come in this man many believed to be their Messiah were struck with inconsolable grief when their Master, Teacher, Savior and Friend was brutally beaten and thoroughly killed. What glimmer of of hope flickered in their hearts faded away as the life of Jesus was snuffed out.

But, as a great preacher once said, "... Sunday's coming!"

Winter, the coldest season, the darkest season, the season in which everything green and living seems to die for good, cannot hold back the new life that lies dormant, waiting to spring forth, even through the snow.

The Life that came in Christ was the Light of the all... and the darkness cannot overcome it.

belonging before believing

2008-03-04T22:51:00.004-06:00

Last week I attended the Conversational Evangelism Conference hosted by Menlo Park Presbyterian Church in CA (which meant I got to spend a couple days earlier in the week in Fresno with my adorable nephew and precious god-daughter! …and their families of course). Speakers included John Ortberg, Todd Hunter, Mark Mittelberg, Becky Pippert, Garry Poole, Dan Kimball and Dr. Richard Peace.

So, for the next several weeks, I am going to switch my cyber-reflections from the issues regarding worship I have been processing since the Calvin Symposium in January to ideas that I encountered during this more recent conference.

As you can probably guess by the title—Conversational Evangelism—the focus of this conference was on a paradigm shift in approaches to Christian evangelism away from the formulaic, linear and propositional methods of the Modern era, with their frequent demand for an immediate decision, to a more organic, relationship-based, conversational perspective which fits better our emerging postmodern context and is aimed more at coming along-side others in a shared, God-ward, spiritual journey.

One of the most intriguing concepts I heard articulated was the mantra of those involved with the Alpha program (which we have recently reintroduced to First Pres.) – “belonging before believing.” The idea being that in the Alpha course (and perhaps in the church, too) people should be welcomed with warm hospitality and allowed to truly belong, relationally, without having to sign-on to statement of faith beforehand. This same concept was reflected in one way or another by just about every speaker.

While I don’t think this phrase should be a concept applied to polity issues such as formal church membership… I do really love this idea as a governing principle for the kind of unconditional love with which we who are followers of Jesus should be interacting with everyone else around us.

Just think about it… belonging before believing… isn’t that how our eternally gracious God has dealt with each of us? God has extended grace to us long before we ever professed faith with our lips, pursuing us with abandon until we finally heard the call and came to the realization that “we love because God first loved us.”

Could we be capable, as God’s beloved children, of extending that unconditional love in gracious, no-strings-attached relationships to those around us who do not yet know God’s love for them in Jesus Christ? Could we do that regardless of this person’s personal beliefs, background or behavior? Could it be that perhaps these people might be more open the gentle whisper of the Holy Spirit if their stories have been listened to and their hearts of have been loved in such a Christ-like way?

Think about it and talk back… let’s start a conversation.

Can we worship Jesus too much?

2008-02-18T15:49:00.006-06:00

Continuing my reflections on the ideas I encountered in workshops I attended at the Calvin Symposium on Worship, I want to return to the workshop led by Lester Ruth, The Most Used Contemporary Worship Songs: Their View of God and of our Love for God (the out line and even audio of the presentation itself can be accessed online at the Calvin Institute's website, here).

In discussing his analysis of 15 years worth of CCLI's "Top 25" most reported (most used by churches) worship songs, I mentioned earlier that one of the most intriguing aspects of Ruth's research was the finding that Jesus was by far the most commonly mentioned or addressed person of the Trinity. The focus of Ruth's study was to analyze the content of these songs through the lens of Trinitarian theology, and his observations painted a picture of American Protestant Christian spirituality (at least from 1989 - 2004) that is by and large Christocentric, and not too concerned with robust or nuanced Trinitarian language.

I reflected positively on this in my previous post, stating that I thought it an encouraging sign that the Christian church in America seemed to be united by a central focus on Christ in the worship songs we have the most in common across denominations and associations.

Now, however, I would like to ask a question with a more cautionary tone that I see raised by this research. And that question is: Can we worship Jesus too much?

That sounds like a silly question at first, like asking "can I love my mother too much?" Of course not! Jesus is very deserving of all the worship we have too offer.

But the deeper question behind that question is what happens to us and our worship of God when our expressions of worship (of which one could argue songs have become the most formative) are narrowed to only speaking of Jesus to the neglect of our Triune God in a general sense, or of God the Father/Creator and God the Holy Spirit in the specific sense? Is it possible for there to be negative long-term affects on our theology and even the practice of our Christian faith as individuals and church communities because of too much "Jesus only" language in our shared worship experiences?

One obvious affect is the development and nurturing of a more personal, individual, intimacy-focused, "me and you Jesus" spirituality that is reflected by much of early CCM and Praise and Worship music, and which is being reacted to pretty strongly by younger generations of Christians (e.g. the emerging church). As Ruth put it in his outline, "the[se] songs do not explore how the character and relationships of the Trinity might shape Christian relationship." An emphasis on the individual Christian's relationship with Jesus, which I think is good at heart, has (I hope inadvertently) deprived our churches of worship expressions that help to form an awareness and appreciation for the inter-relational quality of God's nature, and has contributed to a diminished understanding of the ways we relate to God not only as individuals but as a community, a people called to a common purpose by a common Grace.

There are other considerations that contribute to this affect as well, the relative use of singular ("I") vs. plural ("we") pronouns in congregational singing, for example, but I hope these other questions from Ruth's Trinitarian perspective have gotten you thinking.

I suppose the question in the end isn't "are we worshiping Jesus too much?" so much as "are we not worshiping God in God's fullness enough?" Are we missing out on something? The Church in the past has said lex orandi lex credendi, that what we express to God in prayer, song, liturgy, etc. both reveals and shapes what we believe. It is always a good thing for us as Christians to take a careful look at how our credendi and our orandi--our faith and our expressions of it--relate to one another.

How do you think you/we are doing?

Sing a new song... or several!

2008-02-05T22:59:00.000-06:00

As I sit on my couch this evening, after lots of fun and sweet fellowship at our "Italian Carnivale" Fat Tuesday celebration at church, and now watching the "Super Tuesday" results coming in on TV... I'm just glad to have made it home through the snow to be able to relax at home with my wife and get a little blogging in.

As always, one of the highlights of attending the Calvin Symposium on Worship is the rich breadth of music that is sung throughout all the various worship services. And what's even better is having good songs to bring home to my church that I think will be meaningful for us to sing together.

I was blessed to be asked this year by my good friend Ron Rienstra (whose last name blogger's spell-check wants me to respell as "chinstrap" ... hmmm) to participate in an Alt. Vespers service on Friday evening with a wonderful team of people, all of whom I feel very honored to have gotten to know. The service was a deeply enriching experience, and I hope to reflect more about it later, for now I want to focus on the new songs I learned while taking part.

The corporate songs used in the service had been newly composed for this symposium worship experience by Doug Gay, a pastor and practical theology professor from Scotland. Inspired by specific verses from Hebrews 10 that grounded the Vespers service, these songs are immediately accessible, simple yet theologically profound, and sing like they're old favorites. With Doug's permission I've created lead sheets for these songs which can be downloaded as PDF files here:

Into the Holy (Hebrews 10:19-22)
Wash Me Clean (Hebrews 10:22)
Hope This Hope (Hebrews 10:23-25)

We sang "Into the Holy" at First Pres. last Sunday as we shared in the Lord's Supper, and it resonated with deep meaningfulness as we sang words like "Jesus, our sacrament, making a way for us..."

Another highlight for me during the Symposium was meeting Greg Scheer, attending his workshop (which I have reflected on earlier) and being introduced to his music. I particularly enjoyed the song, "One Thing" (based on Psalm 27:4), which we will be singing this Sunday in the Chapel service, in connection with our Italian guest, the Rev. Gianni Genre's sermon - "The Kingdom of God: Seek to be Found."

I look forward to these songs becoming staples in our church's repetoire, and if you're reading this as a pastor or musician from another church, I hope they can become meaningful expressions of worship for your congregations as well.

Desire, Will & Grace

2008-01-29T18:52:00.000-06:00

Disclaimer: this post has nothing to do with the long-running NBC sitcom.

Continuing my journaling about my experiences at the 2008 Calvin Symposium on Worship last week, another highlight was attending a workshop by the inimitable Dallas Willard, titled "Understanding the Battle Between 'Flesh' and the 'Spirit.'" Surely I will not do Dr. Willard justice, but here goes.

The battle between "Flesh" and "Spirit," as described by Paul in Galatians 5:17-26, is understood by Dr. Willard to be essentially about the battle between desire and will. Desire being that drive that obsesses over its object... Dr. Willard gave the example of a child obsessing after a certain toy to the point that if the child is told "no" you get the whole kicking and screaming routine. "Desire is how the flesh works," obsessing unrestrainedly, even to one's detriment or danger. "Will," on the other hand, "is our God-given power to consider what is better or what is best..." Willard said. Rather than obsessing on the object, like desire, the will is able to consider the thoughts and desires of others... "the will is open to love."

The trick (for me, at least) is training yourself to not give in to obsessive desire, and instead cultivate a Spirit-led will. The reason this is a "trick", or problem, for me is that I know Dr. Willard's answer is going to be something that I've never been able to get the hang of very well... and that's spiritual disciplines.

Spiritual disciplines, according to Willard, are "practice"--like piano lessons--something we can do over and over to develop habits that otherwise don't come naturally to us.

The problem for me is that I've always had a hard time reconciling disciplines (and more importantly my tendency to be too hard on myself when I fail at keeping up with them) with God's grace. That's what impresses me most about Dallas Willard--his ability to hold together an emphasis on spiritual disciplines with a robust understanding of and dependence upon God's grace.

I think often an erroneous, though unintended, effect of an strong theological emphasis on grace (as in the Reformed tradition) is inactivity... the thought that if everything worthwhile is a gift of God's sovereign grace, then there's no reason for me to put in any effort. Willard counters this by saying, "Grace is not opposed to action, it is opposed to earning" (quote of the year, in my opinion).

Disciplines are things that are within our power to do that enable us, by God's grace, to become what we could never become through direct effort (my paraphrase of Willard). The good, the spiritual outcome of the disciplines is not the result of our effort, but the result of the work of God's Spirit in our lives. But the disciplines are still good things for us to be doing.

"Disciplines are wisdom, not righteousness," Willard said. They are wise and good things to be doing, they open our lives to the work of the Holy Spirit. But spiritual disciplines do not by themselves produce righteousness. God alone, in Christ, has provided us with righteousness.

That's what I have to always keep foremost in my mind. I can't earn it. God's grace is sufficient. I can and should take action, making specific choices of will to practice certain disciplines in order to cultivate an openness to changes the Spirit would do in me.

But when it comes down to it, the results are in God's hands. And that gives me enormous amount of peace about this journey of faith. I know I will stumble along the way, and I will fail again and again. But my righteousness is not up to me, thank God, but rests in the grace of God through Jesus Christ... and "Jesus' blood never failed me yet."

"Jesus... be the center..."

2008-01-26T10:27:00.000-06:00

Thanks to the pleasant surprise that there was free wi-fi available in Calvin College's Prince Conference Center, I'm able to do a little catchup today... since I missed posting yesterday...

Here's the fun part of this... I'm writing as I listen to Michael Card play an old upright piano in the corner of the room, singing a song from his recent lament album, "Come Lift Up Your Sorrows." A beautiful song. I'll have to write about it later.

In the meantime, I want to just begin processing through a couple questions that were raised at a workshop I attending Friday by the worship historian Lester Ruth - The Most Used Contemporary Worship Songs: Their View of God and our Love of God.

Lester Ruth studied the CCLI lists of the top 25 songs (most used, as reported by churches with CCLI licenses), two lists per year for a 15 year period, 1989 - 2004. The list of all songs that appeared on those 30 lists totaled only 72 songs.

Ruth studied the content of these songs, asking of them certain questions about their theological content, particularly regarding the doctrine of the Trinity. (i.e. studying who the songs speak about or address--God, Jesus or the Holy Spirit--and what titles were most used for God or the person of the Trinity being addressed)

One of the many interesting observations he made was that the largest single chunk of those 72 "most used" songs addressed or spoke about Jesus in particular, and not "God" in a general sense, and without mention of God "The Father" or the "Spirit" in a Trinitarian sense. 35 songs were about or to Jesus, whereas only 4 referred to God "the Father" and 6 to the Holy Spirit.

What was most intrigueing to me was not to see this as an indictment of the lack of broader content in these songs, or in the work of these composers. Many of these composers have written a broader range of songs... but these were the ones churches chose to sing more.

Lester Ruth suggested that these songs he studied can be a window into a particular sense of piety or spirituality that exists in American (mostly Protestant) churches.

One of the things I saw in this particular trend of Jesus-only songs (among a lot of other possible influences) were that perhaps these songs were used by the broadest spectrum of Christian churches because Christ is our primary commonality. Jesus is the unifying factor.

I agree with Ruth that when we who plan worship make choices about songs & prayers... words that we are putting in the mouths of our congregations to express their worship to God... we should be making wise and balanced choices that reflect a deep grounding in scripture and a the richness of formative Christian theology.

But I take it as a good thing that the one thing our churches are singing about the most is Jesus. We need to make efforts to make sure that this is the "real Jesus" we are singing about, not a watered-down or "gospel lite" Jesus. Not just a "Jesus is my boyfriend" Jesus. The real Jesus who really came, God incarnate, to love and heal and release and redeem... who really lived and died and rose again... who really is the embodiment of God with us.

As Michael Card said yesterday, "God is with us... Emmanuel either means everything or it means nothing."

May we always keep that Jesus, who has come and is already present in our midst, at the center of our lives, our churches, and our worship as the people of God.

Sucker for a good metaphor

2008-01-24T21:34:00.000-06:00

OK, day one at the Calvin Symposium.

I attended Greg Scheer and Paul Ryan's seminar entitled "The Art of Worship Team Leadership" (based mostly on Greg's book The Art of Worship).

As a worship leader, and someone who has led similar workshops in the past, I'm always interested in attending others' workshops to compare ideas and learn new techniques... new tools for my toolbelt so to speak.

Speaking of toolbelts... the thing I love gleaning from workshops like these more than anything else are new metaphors (like "tools for my toolbelt")... new perspectives on how a worship team works together and how best to get across an unified understanding of that dynamic to your team.

The two new (to me) metaphors that Greg and Ryan used that I liked a lot were those of worship leaders as "gardeners" and as "hosts."

As gardeners, those leading a congregation in worship--particularly musicians responsible for leading congregational singing--have a lot of details to attend to, much preparation or "tilling the soil." But in the end, all you can do is sit back and let the Holy Spirit work. We don't make the congregation's authentic, heartfelt worship "grow" by our effort... all we do is lay the groundwork and prepare our part. The true worship of God by God's people is ultimately the work of God's own Spirit, not the result of human leadership, no matter how skillfully done.

The second metaphor of hospitality hit home for me as well (forgive me, I couldn't resist). They struck upon this idea in a couple of different ways. The first is similar to the gardening idea, but instead of a garden the picture is that of a dinner party. The hostess or host of a dinner party has many details to attend to (the worship-leading musician has many musical and technical details to attend to), but in the end it's not about the details, it's about enjoying yourself at the party. The hostess wants to be able to enjoy her guests once they arrive! Musicians in a worship service should remember that once rehearsal ends and the service begins the most important thing is the worship of our living God, not the details.

The other aspect of hospitality that was discussed which really was meaningful for me was hospitality within the worship team itself. I have often described the dynamic of interaction between musicians on a worship team as that of a good jazz combo, each listening carefully to one another and playing off of each other. Part of that which always bears reminding with musicians, particularly inexperienced ones, is that good musicians have learned to not play on top of each other, drowning one another out, and that no one has to play all the time.

Having "inter-team hospitality", as Paul put it today, means that each team member has a servant-attitude toward one another, deferring to one another rather than selfishly taking up all the sound space themselves. I love how this perspective shifts the difficult issues related to arrangement of a team and team-member personalities from a focus on the director who has to ask team members to pull back to a focus on each member listening for how they can make room for their fellow teammates. This is a wonderful way to model biblical, Christian sister & brotherhood within worship leadership ministries.

There were many other great ideas and tips I picked up today, as well as some points of contrast that I'm still processing through... but alas, it is late and I have a long two days ahead of me.

Check back in tomorrow.

Like a butterfly from its cocoon...

2008-01-23T15:57:00.000-06:00

This blog is about to emerge from dormant sleep into a new life... hopefully one that includes frequent posts from its neglectant creator!

Inspired by an opportunity I have this weekend to attend the Calvin Symposium on Worship in Grand Rapids, MI... I am taking over this old blog of mine that was used for a class I took in Seminary... my intent is to blog my way through my experience of the Symposium, processing and discussing insights from various workshops, etc., and along the way hopefully developing a habit of posting to this thing.

We'll see how it goes. "So much depends..." now on the high-speed internet at the Comfort Inn (not quite what W. C. Williams had in mind, but oh well).

Until I decide what to do with all the old "Global Media & Culture" stuff... I'll leave it up. I may end up archiving it, or I may end up deleting it.

Pray I make it through the snow tonight.

Week 10 Resou, Evalu & Analy

2005-12-05T00:42:00.000-06:00

Alas, we have come to the end. This is the last week of posting for this class project on Global Media & Culture. If you are reading this and you are not a member of my group, I encourage you to follow up on the results of this ten-week journey and check out our team's wiki project.

Ok, now to this week's posting:

This week I focused my attention on another chapter ("Globalization, Culture and the Fate of Nations") from Global Transformations by David Held, Anthony McGrew, David Goldblatt & Jonathan Perraton, which we had neglected before but which has turned out to be the chapter most directly applicable to our subject.

The writer(s) begin: "Few expressions of globalization are so visible, widespread and pervasive as the worldwide proliferation of internationally traded consumer brands, the global ascendancy of popular cultural icons and artefacts, and the simultaneous communication of events by satellite broadcasts to hundreds of millions of people at a time on all continents" (Held, et al. 327). In the Information Age globalization moves at the speed of light, electrons and digits. Nothing else in history has been so powerful a unifying force globally than mass media and popular culture. "New technologies of telecommunications and the emergence of international media corporations, among other factors, have generated global cultural flows whose stretch, intensity, diversity and rapid diffusion exceed that of earlier eras" (Held 328).

And the state of things in the media world is such that this "worldwide proliferation" is controlled by an increasingly limited number of "international media corporations."

The chapter lists the few most dominant corporate players in several media sectors...in bold and parentheses after each quote I'll total the number of corporations mentioned:

"news gathering...UPI, AP and Reuters" (3)
"visual news gathering outside of the main networks...Reuters and WTN." (2)
"Internationally available [TV] news...CNN, News International and...the BBC." (3)
"Global recorded music sales...Thorn-EMI, Polygram, Warner and Sony held 73 per cent of the global market in 1991, while Bertelsmann and Matsushita account for much of the rest." (total, 6)
(all of the above, Held 349)

This Global Transformations chapter did not list so clearly the primary corporations in the television and film industries, short of pointing out through other research how much the global landscape of those are dominated by the US. However, an article by J. W. Robert McCheesney (whose work in this field was qoted by Held et al a number of times) which I made reference to in a previous post does give a clear, and more recently updated list of the 8-9 companies that make up the global oligopoly controlling the vast majority of the media on the planet: "...the global media market has come to be dominated by the same eight transnational corporations...that rule US media: General Electric, AT&T/Liberty Media, Disney, Time Warner, Sony, News Corporation, Viacom and Seagram, plus Bertelsmann, the Germany-based conglomerate." A quick recall of recent buy-outs and mergers will remind us just how comprehensive that list is: GE also owns Universal and NBC, Disney owns ABC and a numbers of major movie studios (I read in the 1996 or 97 Disney stock prospectus that 4 out of every 5 movie tickets sold in the US were for Disney-owned movies), Time-Warner also includes AOL and CNN, Viacom owns CBS... these companies account for nearly every major TV network and major film studio in the US. That is a high degree of concentration of money, power and influence, and that means that the unprecedented massive flow of information and cultural product flooding the global marketplace and impacting every nation is in the hands of a very few and mostly like-minded entities.

These corporations may not be making the political, cultural and sociological impacts they are making on nations and cultures intentionally...they are mainly focused on their profits...but nevertheless they are making such impacts, if only because they are redefining the playing filed for everyone else, and making it in their own image. Held and his fellow writers summed up well in their chapter, writing, "In the end, Hollywood, Microsoft and AT&T are in the business of making money - not founding alternative centres of political identity and legitimacy. Yet the huge flows of information, people and imagery that circulate around the globe, crossing borders with impunity, have changed the context in which national projects of any kind must develop” (Held 374). No longer can individuals, societies, cultures make national media products in isolation from the rest of the world, globalization of media has taken that away forever. Everything must be done in a world in which those 8 big companies exist, and in which the standards set by those corporations are the bar to reach.

The good news for followers of Jesus who want to make sure that smaller cultures and marginalized peoples are not ignored and boxed out of this global cultural dialogue, is that just as media has expanded globally at exponential rates in the last fifty years, so has technology, and the more the technology develops and becomes cheaper and easier to access, the more opportunity minority peoples will have to get their voice heard: "...technological shifts, including for instance the camcorder, have reduced the costs of production and so created new cultural spaces for 'alternative' TV channels and production" (Held 374). We can be advocates for such opportunity.

Week 9 Resou, Evalu & Analy

2005-11-28T01:04:00.000-06:00

This week my wife and I traveled to the Northwest for my cousin's wedding, and as I was reading John Storey's book, Inventing Popular Culture, I saw pieces of it coming alive all around me.

Storey writes a convincing manifesto on the development of the phenomenon of Pop Culture, describing its evolution from the old modernist dichotomy of high and low art/culture to today's postmodern leveling of the cultural playing field and blurring of the high/low distinctions.

What intrigued me the most from Storey, for the sake of this project on Global Media and Culture, was his chapter on Pop Culture as Global Culture. He makes the same point that was discussed last week from Pieterse (in fact, Storey quoted Pieterse several times)--that rather than destroying local cultures and Americanizing everything into a homogeneous mass, globalization is more accurately providing for the blending of cultures into unique and never-before-seen hybrids: "Globalization offers the possibility of cultural mixing on a scale never before known. This can of course produce resistance to difference, but it can also produce the fusing of different cultures and the making of new and exciting forms of cultural hybridity" (Storey 117).

This is what I witnessed last week as I drove through Vancouver, B.C., observing both trappings of contemporary Canadian culture and remnants of its British heritage; totem poles, museums and community centers representing its Native past and present; and restaurants featuring food from a hundred different nations world-wide.

This is also what I witnessed on a much more personal level through the celebration of the marriage of my west-coast American cousin and her Guatemalan husband. The wedding was a fairly typical North-American wedding, but the groom gave his vows in his native tongue. The reception was a mixture of Guatemalan marimba music, dancing, many international foods and drinks, US traditions. The couple was from the very beginning intentionally mixing their two very disparate cultures into one special hybrid that maintained some unique flavors of both while exploring new frontiers that could only be discovered together.

Storey said it well when he concluded, "Perhaps there will never be a global culture shared horizontally by all peoples of the globe; local circumstances, including local traditions, may always preclude it. But is that the kind of global culture worth working towards? Better, I think, to build a world culture that is not a monoculture, marked only by hierarchical distinctions, but a world culture which values plurality, in which diversity and difference exist in horizontal relations...." (Storey 119-120).

Some US MNCs seem to globalize with such capitalistic aggression that their intent appears to be total global Americanization, and many of us "enlightened," intentional Jesus-followers show in our actions and our attitudes that such cultural domination is what we fear. I think the things we have read the last few weeks serve to address our fears that the US will wipe-out other local cultures and expose our fears as unfounded.

The question we are still left to ask is what our response is. What is our part to play? As the cultures of the world are hybridized by globalization what should Jesus-followers stand for? I believe we should stand for open, even-handed cultural mixing that honors all the cultures that enter the mix. We should still be on the look out for the powers and structures that would discriminate or marginalize on the basis of race, class, or any other distinction. We also can ground ourselves in the unshakable core of our faith, so we do not get nervous or defensive around the increasing plurality of religions and philosophies.

Media can play a role as well. As we have discussed a number of times before, one of mass-media's most effective uses is that of advocacy. Also, as technology gets cheaper and information pathways are increasingly opened to all, mediums such as the internet can be used by local cultures to join in the global conversations and add their voices to the mix. We as Jesus-followers can work to be just in the ways we use media, and create bold, beautiful works of Popular Art that embody and evoke the best values we hope to add to the global cultural discussion.

Week 8 Resou, Evalu & Analy

2005-11-17T12:37:00.000-06:00

This is our last week working with Held, McGrew, Goldblatt & Perraton's Global Transformations text (although, there is a really good chapter later on "Globalization, Culture & the Fate of Nations" that I think I may bring into the discussion in the next week or so). Here are some thoughts I have on their chapter on"Corporate Power and Global Production Networks":

The chapter begins... "Aside from global finance, perhaps the commonest image of economic globalization is that of the multinational corporation: huge corporate empires which straddle the globe with annual turnovers, matching the entire GNP of many nations" (Held 236). I began alluding to this when I was interacting with their historical surveys of global influence and political empires (see week 6). Today's global landscape is no longer dominated by such large, territorial, military/political empires like ancient Rome or 19th-Century Great Britain. The new empire is the Multinational Corporation (MNC). These companies span the globe, manufacturing, marketing and distributing their products all over the world. The expansiveness and pervasiveness of the influence of MNCs makes their impact much greater than their own profit-margins. MNCs function as influencing powers on the global level. "...MNCs are not simply 'national firms with international operations' which wander the globe in search of maximum profits.... MNCs and global production networks are critical to the organization, location and distribution of productive power in the contemporary world economy" (Held 282). Where MNCs choose to do business can make or break the economies of entire nations. Where MNCs choose to make their products or services available, they impact not only the economy, but the society and culture as well.

And no nation on earth has done the MNC-thing quite like the United States: "US multinationals continued to expand on the basis of their technological superiority across a range of sectors" (Held 243). This, in effect, makes the US a dominant, and even colonial power in the world, not through military conquest and territorial occupation (although recent activities in the Middle East are worth discussing in that light), but through economic and cultural presence via US MNCs.

In addition to Held et al's Global Transformations, we've been reading a new book this week: Globalization & Culture:Global Melange, by Jan Nederveen Pieterse. At one point in his book, Pieterse discusses three paradigms of globalization: "Clash of Civilizations," McDonaldization," and "Hybridization," all of which I thought aptly describe the ways I've seen impact of globalization in recent history. The second of those, however, is the one that most appropriately applies to MNCs and my group's topic of Global Media as a whole. "McDonaldization is a variation on a theme: on the classical theme of universalism and its modern forms of modernization and the global spread of capitalist relations. ...These are variations on the theme of cultural imperialism, in the form of consumerist universalism or global media influence. ...Modernization and Americanization are the latest versions of westernization. If colonialism delivered Europeanization, neocolonialism under U.S. hegemony delivers Americanization." (Pieterse 49). Through its fast food, its media, and the impacts of other MNCs, the United States has been exporting one thing more than anything else: its culture. A professor in a Theology and Pop Culture class I took two years ago said the Popular Culture is America's biggest export. We need to be aware of that as Americans. As Americans who are first and foremost followers of Jesus, we need to be aware of the impact our culture is having on others. We need to be careful about the ways we choose to support US cultural dominance, and savvy about the ways we can subvert it.

I was interested, however, to read Held et al's analysis of the USA's diminishing dominance: "The USA clearly remains the largest overseas investor and its foreign FDI stock has continued to grow in absolute terms. But its share of global FDI has fallen, from around 50 per cent in 1960, to around 25 per cent today" (Held 248). As more and more nations get into the globalization game, the less extreme will be the USA's global cultural presence. Of course, we still need to be wary of a relatively small clique of Developed nations hoarding the pie and leaving few or no pieces for the Developing world. But nevertheless, there is hope that globalization, as unstoppable a force as it seems to be, may not ultimately result in a universal US/Western global culture.

Pieterse thought the same, and suggests that what we are headed for is Hybridization in this post-modern, post-colonial era. Instead of completely distinct cultures clashing, or all cultures being subjected to the dominance of one, he sees a hybrid coming, where distinct local cultures will be enhanced while interacting more freely and openly with every other local culture, creating an ongoing, dynamic global culture that is integrative and representative of the whole (Pieterse 52-55). I think that is the sort of future we as Christians can confidently work toward and look forward to, because it is one in which the Kingdom of God can be proclaimed without being combatant toward any peoples and without destroying any cultures. The Kingdom has come to fight evil, and destroy the power of Hell... not peoples and cultures. To the people of the world we can proclaim justice and freedom in Christ, and from the cultures of the world we can call forth a beautifully rich palette of new worship to God.

Week 7 bonus

2005-11-14T04:00:00.000-06:00

Here's some other brainstorming on my part of potential ways to phrase our alternative values, or our responses/tasks/uses of Global Media for Jesus followers:

Intead of self-promotion - Raising awareness on a mass scale of the plight of the poor through media advocacy, and creatively and artistically moving audiences to action.

Instead of separation - Engagement as "Roaring Lambs" within the media industries, producing quality, innovative media Art... be salt and light.

Instead of ignorance & isolation - Engagement through Media Literacy (and study of Media Ecology) and theological reflection, in order to know how media functions, what it does, and how God is already at work within it. (see also the Media & Family group)

Instead of seeking profits or selfish gain - Making liberating media technologies available to those whose voices, skills and gifts have been ignored. (see also Global Technology group)

Instead of creating only for our local community - Provide mass media resources, free of charge whenever possible, for the churches worldwide that have less access to such resources.

Instead of getting News/information from only one "pet" source - Get News/info from multiple sources, so as to have a broader picture of the world and what's happening in it, and not merely one view sponsored by a limited set of corporate agendas.

Instead of making copycat products - Creative artistic innovation, including educating ourselves in good style, aesthetics, and effective techniques... so our products are not behind the curve but on the leading edge.

Instead of making the typical accusations - Be aware of what forces really control the media (i.e. conservative corporate America more so than liberal culture)... also acknowledging we are not merely passive victims because in this market consumers have a great amount of control.

Instead of reinforcing negative stereotypes & enforcing the status quo - Focus not on the powerful, rich, beautiful or famous, but rather use media to tell the stories of the marginalized and the "least of these."

Does anyone else have an "Instead of..." phrase of their own to add to this?

Week 7 Resou, Evalu & Analy

2005-11-14T02:34:00.000-06:00

This week we were looking at the chapters in Held's (et al) Global Transformations on Globalization of Trade, and of Finance. The latter of those chapters had lees to offer my area of interest, but there were some thoughts from the chapter on Trade that are worth interacting with.

One major force in the growth of globalization has been increasingly free trade world-wide. "Trade has revolutionized the prospects of all industrial sectors - today few industries rely purely on domestic markets or domestically produces components and raw materials" (Held 149). The Media industry is no exception, particularly in the area of market. The market for media productions is becoming more and more global, as illustrated by the growing mass distribution of books in translation, films, television programs and music to many if not every corner of the globe. Films, for example, produced by companies in the US (but often filmed in other countries, using crew labor from those nations) are no longer released exclusively to a domestic audience first, but are often premiered simultaneously in several countries (e.g. The Matrix, Lord of the Rings). Media is produced for global market.

However, even though I think there has been some within other regional areas (not to mention the rising popularity of "world music), when it comes to media, the US is still by far the largest producer by numbers and scope of reach. The authors of the book said, "Of course, this competition can take various forms such that global markets may often reflect oligopolistic rather than perfectly competitive conditions, with a few major producers dominating a trading sector" (Held 150). Such is certainly the case with media corporations. Worldwide, more and more media producers and outlets are owned by fewer and fewer corporate entities. I made reference to an article that touches on that two weeks ago (see resource #9, The New Global Media, by McChesney). I hope to more clearly boil down that information and map it soon.

Another intriguing discussion in the chapter was on the topic of national protection. As I expected, the US has always been very big on protecting its own trade and domestic product. A pair of tables in the chapter chart tariff rates. On the first covering tariff rates from 1820-1931, the US was by far the highest from 1875 on, with a rate in 1931 of 53% (Held 158). Though it all evened out to a much lower and much more level playing field in the latter 20th Century, the US rate in 1985 of 3.5% was still the highest in the world. Even though our nation has always been a proponent of freedom in the forms of both democratic politics and free-enterprise capitalism, we still have maintained a culture of "protecting our own." Our unbalanced protection policies have probably contributed to our world-wide dominance in certain areas of exportation, among them our popular culture media (likely our biggest export currently). I wonder if any of this dominance will every change since the global state of economics have made nations more dependent on each other. "By the late twentieth century institutional constraints, as well as economic costs, have severely limited the scope for national protectionism" (Held 187).

These observations may not find direct ways of influencing our wiki, but they are at least informative as background. I think there is likely to be more directly useful information in the next chapter on global corporate practices, and in the later chapter on the globalization of culture (and cultural products such as film).

OK, shifting focus... I have some thoughts from work in class last week to post here for consideration of inclusion on our wiki project.

I was spurred on by Bolger's lectures the last several class sessions on Jesus practices in the Gospels to think specifically about certain practices that might speak directly to the subject of cultural transformation in the arena of Global Media.

First, Jesus' practice of caring and providing for the "least of these," as described in his parable about the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25, and expressed through his multiple healings of the poor and needy. The questions pertaining to Global Media that I believe this Jesus-practice forces us to ask are: "How does Global Media oppress those in need?" "How might it liberate them provide for them?"

Secondly, I think of the theme throughout the Gospels, but particularity Luke, of Jesus sharing table-fellowship (interacting intimately) with sinners and outcasts of the society. A good example of this is in the story of Zaccheus in Luke 19. The main question I believe this Jesus-practice raises for us within the context of Global Media and Christian involvement is: "Is isolationism or combatant separatism really the best response for Jesus-followers?"

Finally, Jesus' teachings about being "salt and light" in the world (see Matthew 5:13-14) force me to consider such questions as: "If Jesus-followers boycott participation in the realms of media, how will we ever be a positive presence of 'salt and light'?"

Week 6 Resou, Evalu & Analy

2005-11-07T10:00:00.000-06:00

We've been reading Global Transformations: Politics, Economics and Culture by Held, McGrew, Goldblatt & Perraton. Here are some thoughts from the first couple chapters of the book.

Their historical description of the emergence of territorial nation-states and the "rules" that governed their interactions with each other was interesting to me. One thing that struck me was how the Westphalian model that developed from 1648 into the 18th and 19th centuries seemed to set up the global 'society of states' in such a way as to easily allow the global market to be dominated by one (or a few) overpowering nation or economy. All nations were seen as "equal before the law," and yet because the understanding was that differences between nations would be "settled by force" the wealthiest or largest nations could easily dominate the global economic landscape by sheer show of power. It's clear how that model set up the global colonial domination of Europe as a whole and

Britain

in particular in the 19th Century. The developing understanding of the free sovereignty of each individual nation somewhat ensured that empires in the model of Rome would no longer exist, but the "principle of effective power" (essentially that might makes right... survival of the fittest) meant that new empires of global economic presence and influence like Great Britain's in the 1800's (on which the sun never set) were free to flourish, to the detriment of weaker, poorer nations.

The similarities between the evolving and pervasive global dominance of

England

in the 19th century and the current state of

United States

global influence are uncanny to me. As territorial or political imperialism diminished, global domination of trade routes, precious natural resources, and socio-economic systems became the new model of influence. "Powerful national economic interests were often able to retain hegemonic positions over former colonial territories through the replacement of 'a visible presence of rule' with the 'invisible government' of banks, companies and international organizations" (Held et al, 45). In a somewhat Westphalian way, the sovereignty of each nation is recognized more now than ever and yet the

United States

has been so dominant on the global landscape... mostly in those same "invisible" ways... through pervasive financial systems, internationally influential corporations, and organized associations of nations in which the

U. S.

can so easily enforce its own national interest.

From a Global Media perspective the thing that intrigued me the most was the effectiveness of

England

's implementation of speedy global communications. The connecting of their colonies with a submarine cable telegraph system must have been the first electronic global media. The ways that helped them cement their influence globally via quick communication and global dissemination of British-dominated information is a fascinating historical counterpart to the

United States

' pervasive use of global electronic media for leveraging cultural influence through its number one worldwide export: Popular Culture.

Week 5 Analysis

2005-10-31T10:00:00.000-06:00

Well this week I decided that if the project my colleagues and I are working toward is a wiki resource for Christ-followers which will be posted on wikipedia... then I better know what is already in the wikipedia that covers some of our subjects.

The wikis covering subjects like Media Ecology and Media Literacy do little more than define the topic in a pretty general way and then provide lists of key figures and links to external resources. I don't know that we need to do much of that, then in our wiki. That should free us up a bit to focus on applying the learning we've gained from those areas and then to focus our resource listing on more practical guides and examples for Christ-followers seeking to effect cultural change in the area of Global Media and Culture.

Other helpful stuff from this week, though, will be those pieces helpful in mapping the Global Media landscape. The article, "The New Global Media," paints a useful picture of the corporate scheme (at least as it had developed in the 1990s) and describes the "creation of a global oligopoly... [like] the oil and automotive industries earlier this century." That means that Media on the global scale have become controlled by the same few HUGE trans-national corporations that control all the US media. I'm sure this has only become more the case thus far in the 21st Century.

Week 5 Reso & Eval

2005-10-31T03:38:00.000-06:00

1. wiki on Media Ecology

2. wiki on Media Literacy

3. wiki on Media Studies

These first three resources are just for my colleagues and I to take note of so that as we interact with each of these areas in the development of our own wiki we do not find ourselves repeating too much. Also, we may want to link to them for simple definitions.

4. A well known article in Media studies circles on The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction by Walter Benjamin. This is perhaps a bit too philosophical and aesthetically focused for our purposes, but is nevertheless a fascinating article on how the role of Art society has changed since it shifted from being a unique, one-of-a-kind expression to a product reproducible by mechanical means.

5. A book entitled Media, Communication, Culture: A Global Perspective by James Lull. Only a few pages of this are viewable online, but it seems to offer a uniquely Global look at things, particularily with Sports as an example (at least in these few pages).

6. Another book entitled Spaces of Identity: Global Media, Electronic Landscapes and Cultural Boundaries by David Morley. This book also has only a few pages available online, but it looks promising for the purposes of understanding and mapping the Global Media landscape as it has developed over recent decades.

7. An article, New Media and Borderless Education: A Review of the Convergence between Global Media Networks and Higher Education Provision An interesting (and LONG, at 250+ pages) study and report on the issues surrounding Global Media and education. Doesn't end up sounding as promising as it could, but has some good insight into the affects of globalization through the Media on significant areas of culture such as higher education.

8. An article, Cultural Studies, Multiculturalism, and Media Culture by Douglas Kellner. Kellner has also written a great book entitled Media Culture, but both this article and the book approach the subject mostly from a Cultural Studies stand-point. This may not be as helpful for us because we are not so much wanting to study a culture or cultures by analyzing their media (as Kellner does), but rather our task is leaning more toward understanding Media's effects on culture in order to work within Media to bring positive change to a culture. Nevertheless, both are worthwhile reads if you are interested in such things.

9. An article, The New Global Media: ItÂs a Small World of Big Conglomerate s by Robert W. McChesney. Sets the stage pretty well, and helps us in our mapping of the Global Media climate, including its structures and practices.

10. The website for Global Media Outreach, a ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ. One of my colleagues may have already pointed out this resource, but is is quite possibly a good practical resource for stories and examples of people/groups doing this well.

Week 4 Analysis

2005-10-22T23:40:00.000-05:00

The question is just about as perennial as one can get: Is society just bad, or did the Media make it so? Should we blame our brokenness on the Pop Culture machine, or did something of our own brokenness seep into our inherently neutral Media and corrupt it from within. I think to some extent we have to say both. We cannot, like the man in the comic strip, cop out and blame our own downfall on anything external (on an individual or corporate basis)… if we find ourselves in Hell (whether you mean it literally or figuratively) it will be of our own doing, you can be sure of that. And yet, at the same time we cannot deny the power Media has to shape our culture, and those changes will inevitably express both good values and bad.

Is the Media to blame for our cultural depravity? Well according to one writer, at least Hugh Hefner is. “It's pretty hard to deny the complete cultural victory of pornography in America today.” Analizing the Playboy-effect on our society and culture, Mercer Schurchardt says, “what was really happening was that Hefner was imposing his new standards on society, making us conform to his new ideas of goodness, truth, and beauty.” Schurchardt (touching on one of CT’s favorite subjects) even goes so far as to just about blame Hefner for the rise of Abortion: “The Playboy philosophy, which requires women to be thin, infertile, and always available, essentially requires childlessness. And you can bet your birth control packet that abortion is the natural bedfellow of the successful playboy.” Does the kind of Media produced by the likes of Hugh Hefner really shape our culture that much? Is Playboy to be given credit for the wide-spread acceptance (at least behind closed doors) of pornography and sexually explicit media in general in America? Well, on at least that count I do come pretty close to agreeing. Again, we cannot underestimate the power Media has to subtly shape our perspectives on a cultural level.

I appreciate the Charlie Peacock article for its exhortation and optimism (perhaps it would work well to be quoted in our exhortation section on the wiki). His perspective, illustrated through the story of the Sarajevo cellist, applies well to the kind of message we should encourage Christians to carry into the Media. This quote summed it up well: “I should rise each day and ask God, ‘What rubble do you want me to breathe your life into today? Where do you want the Kingdom rule to be made visible? How can I help to make something or someone beautiful?’ This kind of lifestyle is world-changing, and you never know how far or how long a story will travel on its trajectory of good.”

The “Lies that Go Unchallenged” resource I found both intriguing and disturbing. First and foremost, I think it is very important for us to be AWARE of how we assume things or take things for granted in culture. We can’t ignore the subtle ways we are affected by culture because being aware of such forces is the only way we can work within culture for good.

Week 4 Res and Eval

2005-10-21T22:53:00.000-05:00

1. Non-Sequitor - This particular strip offers a humorous illustration of the way many of us (whether the finger is being pointed politically, culturally, morally, or religiously) blame the Media for the bad state we find ourselves in. Well, is it true? Is our living Hell entirely the fault of the Media?

2. CT Article: “Hugh Hefner’s Hollow Victory: How the Playboy magnate won the culture war, lost his soul, and left us with a mess to clean up.”

3. CT Article: “Blockbuster Evangelism: Millions have been converted after seeing films about Jesus, and Hindu radicals are responding with violence.”

4. “Recreating With Eyes of Faith” – yet another article by John Fischer, published in Relevant Magazine, Nov/Dec 2003. Couldn’t find it online, but here are some quotes and summary…

5. CCM Article: “So Much More” by Charlie Peacock - read both pages.

6. CT Article: Free PowerPoint Challenges Misconceptions in Pop Culture - reporting on a free PowerPoint presentation for Christians to download to be made aware of the “lies” around us in culture (including the media).

7. Lies That Go Unchallenged
The actual site for the free PowerPoint, based on the book by Chuck Colson… all of it is interesting, but these last few “lies” especially so:

The Arts
Lie #4: Art should break traditional norms and challenge outworn beliefs.

Christians in Culture
Lie #5: Christian beliefs are a private matter.

The Media
Lie #6: Entertainment is a vehicle to help us fulfill personal desires.

Spirituality in Culture
Lie #7: God accepts us as we are, and there are many ways to him.

8. Books & Culture article: “Book of the Week: Moody, the Media, and the Birth of Modern Evangelism.”

“Bruce J. Evensen, a communications professor at DePaul University, masterfully recounts both how the newspapers elevated Moody to celebrity status and how they came to occupy a central role in modern mass evangelism.”

9. Book Review: “How The Monster Grew”

“A Pulitzer Prize-winning historian looks at the origins of modern media.”

10. Communication As Culture - Some interesting resources on the theory surrounding Media, Communication and Culture.

I don’t know how I found this, but it contains some of the good theory pieces I saw presented by Shane Epps when he lectured on Media Ecology in my Media and Ministry class. That particular bit of information is James Carey’s understanding of Transmission vs. Ritual models of communication—which essentially allows us to analyze the kind of effects different modes of communication have on groups of people (or societies and cultures).

The site also includes some great sub categories of resources like Media Theory, which discusses other theorists I’ve mentioned, like Marshall McLuhan.

Week 3 Reso, Evalu, Analy

2005-10-13T23:38:00.000-05:00

Left Behind 3
Wow… so how’s this for a media shift… this movie is being released on DVD only, and then screened in CHURCHES instead of theaters. What do you think of this shift if it becomes a trend?

Fearless Faith
This is a great book that I think helps us think about Media and Culture from a Christian sub-culture perspective. Or rather, challenging the Christian sub-culture’s perspective. The book by John Fischer is entitled Fearless Faith: Living Beyond the Walls of “Safe” Christianity. This link is from Fischer’s web-site, and has a first-chapter excerpt from the book. Check it out.

More John Fischer
An article from Fischer (originally in CCM magazine) that fits some of what our group discussed in class today about the high ideals of creativity and artistic integrity and how quickly that can be usurped by the powers and practices at play in the Entertainment Industry in the U.S.

Roaring Lambs
Roaring Lambs: A Gentle Plan To Radically Change Your World. Another one of the books I mentioned to my group in class the other day… Bob Briner was the president of ProServ Television and an Emmy winning TV producer… and a Christian who wrote this book as a “manifesto of our proper stance regarding the ‘culture-shaping arena”, arguing that “Christians can and ought to be the movers and shakers of social change.” He applies it particularly to Media and the Arts and other areas he saw as “culture-shaping arena” that Christians have not had much presence or influence in.

The 500 Year Delta
This book is quoted in Fischer's Fearless faith book, so I only know that part of it that applies to Fischer's book, but they way Fischer references it, he talks about it as being "one of the first books to talk about the vast changes facing society [in the near future]." They suggest that what society is heading toward is the deliniation "of the current splintering of the social, political, and economic organization of society into what they call "media communes." And they identify one of those separate groups as "God Talk," the Christian "media commune. We are relegated to our own separate niche, being marketed to and sold to based on our "demographic," but without any effective crossover into the rest of society and life. That certainly does not bode well for Christian interaction and engagement with the rest of culture, and that in effect means Media, as a power and structure in this world, will have pushed the Church a safe distance away from the rest of culture. Yikes!

Week 2 Resources, Eval and Analysis

2005-10-08T13:20:00.000-05:00

The subject of Media Ecology is one that is very intrigueing to me, and in general I think we need to be thinking deeper about just how Media shapes and influences individuals, communities, societies and cultures. Media Ecology is just that, the study of how Media effects people, and then how we can make decisions about using Media that are well informed and good for our cultural "eco-system."

http://www.media-ecology.org/mecology/readinglist.html
Here is a reading list of potential resources. Marshall McLuhan is a must for informing us about the effects of Media on society and culture. A genius before his time.

http://www.media-ecology.org/mecology/
More avtual content from this site will help us figure out whether the subject of Media Ecology is a direction we want to go with this project.

http://www1.medialiteracy.com/ecology.jsp
This is a site list of resources having to do with media ecology. It has a couple great quotes about the subject at the beginning:
Media ecology looks into the matter of how media of communication affect human perception, understanding, feeling, and value; and how our interaction with media facilitates or impedes our chances of survival.”Neil Postman
"Media ecologists are interested in the interactions of communications media, technology, technique, and processes, with human feeling, thought, value, and behavior."Christine Nystrom
Further down the page it lists resources under Academic Resources, Organizations and Programs; and then some Online resources. I’ve began checking some of them out, and a few of them are also on this week’s list.

http://www.sagepub.co.uk/journal.aspx?pid=105711
Sage publications looks like a promising source, if only as a bibliography of further reading. Particularly, they are the publishers of the journal, “Media, Culture & Society” which “provides a major international forum for the presentation of research and discussion concerning the media, including the newer information and communication technologies, within their political, economic, cultural and historical contexts. The journal is interdisciplinary, regularly engaging with a wider range of issues in cultural and social analysis. Its focus is on substantive topics and on critique and innovation in theory and method.”
The Sage website itself doesn’t have much else in the way of content, but I should take a look at that journal in future weeks.

http://studyabroad.msu.edu/programs/ausmedia.html
Another one of the programs listed on the media literacy site is this study abroad program through Michigan State University, “Media, Environment and Culture in Australia.” I don’t really know how helpful this would be for this project since it seems more like they are three separate areas for the program, rather than one program covering the integration of these three areas.

http://www.bowlingalone.com/
A really intriguing-looking book. There might be some helpful information here on the site as well, but I wonder if this book could be helpful.

http://www.christianitytoday.com/movies/interviews/michealflaherty.htmlI know this is an interview about an upcoming movie, but if you’re like me you can’t wait for the Lion The Witch & The Wardrobe to come out. The interview is with the head of Walden Media, the company that is producing the film (it’s only being marketed and distributed by Disney, Walden kept all creative control). The interest I have in this interview from the perspective of this blog is the way it discusses the phenomenon of interaction between a Media corporation and the mass public over the production of a well-loved story. It’s almost as if because the story is so well known and the book is so deeply loved, there’s a powerful though indirect relationship between culture and corporation which puts pressure and leverage on the decision-making processes of the project. The not-so-silent partner in Media decision IS the culture which it both caters to and shapes.

Luke and Marla @ Abby's wedding

2005-09-29T11:40:00.000-05:00

Luke and Marla @ Abby's wedding
Originally uploaded by lphyder.

First Post

2005-09-29T10:44:00.000-05:00

Hi. Welcome to my blog.

My name is Luke Hyder. I'm in my third year in the MDiv program at Fuller Seminary, concentrating in Worship, Theology and the Arts. I am from a lot of places if you go back far enough, but my family has been in Fresno CA for about the last 16 years. I came to Pasadena from Spkane WA where I did my undergrad at Whitworth College, worked as a worship leader at First Presbyterian Church, and met and married my wife, Marla. I am the son and son-in-law of two Presbyterian Pastors and am training to be one myself.

In this class and on this blog I hope to do some meaningful processing of the subject of Cultural Tranformation, especially as it pertains to Contemporary Culture, and specifically how it can be applied to a local church's vision and mission in engaging its immediate community and cultural context(s).

Peaceout