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Emergent

monday music : zehnder music review

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a first for the monday music is to review some new music. this stuff came to me via the ooze. i’ve often wondered what would emergent music sound like? after brian mclaren wrote his manifesto to worship songwriters some years back i have been looking out for those who might fit into taking that seriously.

the zehnder guys give their angle on it. here is a video of them doing the song of peace hymn.

So Who’s Zehnder?
(found at their website)

Twins Tom and Tim Gibbs Zehnder compose, arrange, perform and record as an indie worship band based in Los Angeles. Tim plays bass and doumbek, Tom plays guitar and djembe, and the two raise their voices together in elaborate duets. They serve a local church with their music, L.A.’s Immanuel Presbyterian Church.

A few accolades:
“Zehnder communes with those who hear their music.”
-Ched Meyers | Author/Speaker/Theologian | Bartimaeus Cooperative Ministries
“Take a unique harmonized vocal sound and a punchy groove and combine that with provocative lyrics and you start to get a sense of Zehnder.”
-Rev. Dan Hoffman | Co-Executive Director | Hollywood Urban Project

For more about Zehnder

i am not the aficionado of music, but what i liked about these guys is that they take some chance with their lyric. its not repetitive chorus which gets taken into a quick circulation of the worship spectrum, but there is rounded thought mixed in with their lyric. i would liken their songwriting to more a folk songwriter. the sound of the group i might describe as an experimental acoustic. even their rap song “justice jam” (which is probably my favorite) is bass lined with a chello (or what sounds like chello).

youth ministry 3.0 : emerging youth ministry observation

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T_9780310668664 i was given youth ministry 3.0 by the folks at youthworker movement and asked to give a recommendation on whether it is a must read, okay read, and on down the line.

knowing mark oestriecher through some mild interactions and consistent reader of the marko blog, even read the precursor postings that lead up to the writing of this book i was very excited to get a hold of a copy and start reading.

some of my thinking points

  • i read this book in one sitting.. not sure, but i think that is a first.. it isn't a long overly drawn out book, which i can appreciate. the basic framework of the book goes through a basic understanding of adolescent development then history of youth ministry leading into the futurist thoughts on where this new phase we will be finding ourselves in regards to youth ministry. i call it futurist in that some of the basic methods for analyzing the future trends is looking at the historic path and the consistent behaviors of the target group.
  • some of the voices that marko uses for giving language to this future are the like of kenda creasy dean and many from the emergent/emerging/missional church generative friendship. so if you are familiar with what they are saying then you will probably find threads you already resonate with in y3.0.
  • the adolescent section dragged for me. being an early childhood and human development person in college all the adolscent stuff was basic.. but, for those who have no training or education in human development and/or life stages then its a good primer to get you started in the know. i've leaned on my adolescent development knowledge for years and still have my text books (which might be in need of some updating).
  • the history of youth ministry is brief and very general. it basically covers the evangelical spectrum and grazes a few thoughts on mainline christian practice. now, this could be attributed in part to that evangelical contexts were the first to be doing a 'youth' ministry. if that be the case it should be explored what spiritual formation when a youth was immersed into a full life of the church instead of being separated out. some of this could be hashed out reading four views of youth ministry
  • i cannot express how much i support some of the ideas that marko shares in being ready to deconstruct the old forms of youth ministry. he doesn't put out what youth specialties will be doing next as the next form or youth ministry, as he confesses he doesn't even know, but that a change is happening and to ignore it will only lead you aimlessly into the wendy's black hole (you'll have to read the significance on that one). marko's greatest gift to the youth ministry world is giving some language to those are feeling frustrated that what you have been doing does not work to bring about some change. change is not hard within a church context, but you need to be able to speak to it.
  • i was super pleased to see the word 'discernment' in the book. as i was reading and hearing marko say 'i don't know how this will turn out' or 'can't tell you what it will look like for you' i was sitting saying, you need discernment.. a few pages later, that is what marko suggested (and i was well pleased). the practice of discernment with your adults and youth alike is a powerful time of reshaping and anticipating the needs of your youth community. the youth minister will/should become more of a spiritual director in this regard cultivate a community that is intune with their cultural context. i would suggest additional reading of practicing discernment and the art of spiritual direction
  • i like the idea of encouraging folks to become a youth culture anthropologist. its not hard to start into things like that. getting on the ypulse email list, cpyu email list, using google reader to subscribe to some blogs (like mine, haha) and news outlets, then using google news to send you news articles on keywords (ie. youth culture) is an easy way to observe some of the trends. beyond what i have mentioned personally subscribe to wired magazine, which throws out gems like snack culture. i also pick up a futurist magazine every now and then. a cheaper thing i do is watch my youth cruise through youtube and their behaviors.
  • the "communional" idea is worth more discernment. the best part is that marko gives his own language spin to it. language will take you far in moving forward in shifting sands of youth ministry.

so as the folks who gave me the book asked. would i say this is a must have? no.. conditional that you are reading a whole lot from other places. is this a good read? certainly.

is it worth your time? if you are feeling that you are not making a dent and wondering if there is a different way? for sure. if you are looking for some language to help reshape some change this is a good starting point.

monday music : Jesus is our jubilee

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not being a nashville native i have adopted some of the norms of the nashville culture. one of the norms of being in nashville is that you don't "out" the celebrities. they are regular people and you let them be regular. since nashville is a country music home this is rather easy for me. being from the philadelphia area there was maybe one country station and going to alabama i tried to give country a go, but it didn't take. some of the icons i can point out, the dolly or… well, the dolly.

this not 'outting' the celeb became a big thing when i was working for awhile at rei in brentwood (a camping co-op store for those that don't know & a tn town where a lot of celebs reside). people would come in and i'd ask them if they were a member (a common question when you visit a co-op) and i'd get their name, jackson, brooks, etc. i knew of people, so i would realize that they were somebody.

i lost my cool though, once.

i had this very ordinary guy stop in buying some stuff. i rang him up, his co-op membership was under his wife's name, not a problem. he gave me his credit card and i looked at it for signature and matching name. when i saw his name it said 'michael card'.. my eyes widened and i looked up at him and sneaked the question "are you, the michael card, the musician?" he answered back "yes" and didn't look to pleased about it. so i needed a recovery.. i responded back with what was amazing brilliance "i know one of your old piano teachers." note: this was not a lie, rolland puckett who went to church with me. rolland is an older gentleman who was a concert pianist and would play his steinway in the church sanctuary at night. i'd sneak in and listen to him, it was a real joy and we had a good friendship. anyway, back to michael. he replied back "really?" i said, "yes, rolland puckett is a very good friend." michael's shoulder's let down, we talked about rolland a bit and the gear that he was purchasing for a 2 week romanian mission he was undertaking at that time. i was on cloud nine. went home and told my brother who i ran into and he was stoked too. i told other folks about my run in with michael card, but they were like "who?" yes, he's more the artist for the church geek.

michael was never the most well known artist. he didn't fit the trendy mold of contemporary christian music. his stuff was challenging too. none of his stuff is fluffy & couldn't really get adapted to the growing worship music scene. he talked with a lot of the words and metaphors you see in the emergent community now, only this was steeped in more liturgy and lived out in the early & mid '90's, long before that stuff start.

so, in this time of advent i share with you michael card's song jubilee. i would also suggest his song with phil keaggy 'poem of your life'

things on tab : stories sex religion church teens and technology

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as part of my new integration of lifestream stuff into my blogs newer look. i've been plugging a lot of stuff into my gavin del.icio.us account. so you can track back to these and other links of interest long after this posting (and others) have cycled out of view. i'm working on figuring out how i like stumbleupon or digg.

ordinary radicals review : my life as i knew it

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DVD
some time back i ordered my own copy of 'the ordinary radicals' a documentary by jamie moffett and focusing on the people and experiences that circled around the jesus for president book tour.

i was super stoked about the documentary. had these ideas of all the different people it would profile and story.

when i got the documentary i watched it at the first opportunity. my emotional reactions were somewhat uneasy, there was some stuff in there that made me uncomfortable, which i felt strange about because all the concepts and ideas were things i have been familiar with through readings of shane's books or others. many of the people in the video i had heard of and got what i would expect. but some of the lesser known, or unknown folks, stories were way powerful.

the documentary got really long for me. almost 2 hours in length it felt long. i might have done a shorter movie length with continued stories on a website. that might allow for more adaptability and continued conversations.. might even have a place where people upload their own videos of stuff they are doing.

at the end of it all the documentary ended up in moorestown, nj which was funny to me. i went to church at first umc in moorestown, growing up next door in cinnaminson. i spent many years with the people of moorestown. they were doing a contrast of moorestown and camden, which only are about five miles apart (with cinnaminson in part of the middle of that 5 miles). camden is notoriously one of the most violent and poverty stricken places.

what is funny to me is that i hung out in camden too. it was for various reasons, but i remember doing a driving lesson through parts of camden to pick up the next student. there was shopping spots and even a night club as i remember visiting. in my early days of hs we played various schools from in and around camden in sports (that changed when our schools restructured the whole league system). the waterfront was built up with the aquarium and concert amphitheater to check out. then there were my emt days where we went to cooper hospital over and over again. though i knew camden to be a dangerous place by reputation it was never some huge stark contrast.. but then again, back in those days moorestown isn't what it is today either. the divide of haves and have nots may have just gotten so much bigger.

back to ordinary radicals. its a good movie, great for stirring conversation. wish it was shorter to get allow people to get to that conversation without feeling they are leaving something out. as for teaching spots it has some great testimonies to pull from to share specific thoughts on empire, money, mission, homelessness, government, and more.