...yesterday was one of the greatest days ever...in the morning chip and i drove the hummer down to Aztec to pick up shawn, ryder, and keegan (3 of the guys in chip's small group)...
...and then the five of us went to the infamous "rock garden" (an amazing spot about 15 min outside of Aztec). obviously it was fun to ride in the hummer and i am always amazed at what that thing can do...
...but more importantly it was so much fun for me to hang out with these guys outside of church (chip gets to see them every tuesday, but i've not been able to hang out with them outside of a sunday night). how many pastors get to hang out with people in their church on a sunday morning outside of the context of a worship service?
...we wheeled, we ate, we laughed, we had a great time...
...then i came home and talked to amy on the phone for a long time and that is always a highlight...
...then it was on to the rec center for some worship prep. our pre-service run through was pretty lame...i had not played all week so i was not very good...singers were struggling with allergies...the set list seemed unispired...and then the service started and a wierd thing happened...people genuinely worshipped God...it was the total opposite of our pre-service practice...which for me highlighted something i've been noticing for a while...we actually have some pretty amazing musicians in our little church and yet that rarely becomes the focus of our musical worship experiences...yes, it helps to have great musicians, but again, that never really seems to be the point...
...andrew beaujon is a writer for Spin magazine (one of the major music zines)...he spent over a year getting thoroughly immersed in the world of the christian music industry and then wrote a book about it called "body piercing saved my life" (i've mentioned this book in this space before)...anyway, i picked up this book expecting him to just rip away at an easy target...i was surprised at how gracious and open he was to christian music for a self-proclaimed athiest (and serious music critic at that). he had a lot of positive things to say about the industry, which was surprising. however, there was one "genre" in the industry that he could not get his head around and that was worship music...far and away the most harsh things he had to say were directed at the worship bands and services he attended...
...now i can hear all kinds of arguments about how non-christains aren't supposed to "get" a worship service or really understand what is going on (i've been to seminary and i've heard all the arguments), but i don't think that's really the case, especially after you read what this guy has to say about when he "got" what the worship thing was all about.
...it happened for him at a david crowder concert (which, of course, endeared the author to me greatly)...here's how he describes the experience:
"The reason I finally 'got' worship music at this show wasn't that Crowder puts on an excellent show (which he does) or that the music was adventerous and fun and really, really loud (which it was) or even that, if I eyed my fellow spectators selectively, I finally got a glimpse of what it might have been like to see Cheap Trick at Budokan in 1979...No, I got worship music during a sound collage during the last number, 'Rescue is Coming,' when Crowder bent down and started fiddling with an effect pedal so that his guitar was feeding back in an interesting loop, so engrossing, in fact, that I didn't even notice he'd disappeared completely for a minute or so. And that, friends, marked my conversion to, or at least the end of my enmity to, worship music. Here's a guy surrounded by rabid fans who'd have done anything to get close to their worship leader, consiously removing himself from the spotlight. There was only one star at that evening's show, and He hadn't been onstage at all."
...first of all, i think that's some incredible insight about what a worship service should be about from anyone, let alone an athiest...second, i think, if i may brag for a minute, that that's what is happening at CTK-Durango during our little worship services...the artists/leaders/musicians/ have been removed from the spotlight and it's just people responding to God, who he is and what he has done, not attending a show (or putting on a show). i can't think of a better way to describe what happened last night...
...after church there was a campfire to attend to and wonderful conversations into the glorious night...reflections on where God has led us and where we might be going next...
...what a way to spend a Sunday.
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