I Went to Church Online

On Sunday, I went to church online.

I had seen and been told about LifeChurch.tv and this week my wife and I decided to check it out.  Here’s what I thought.

The message was great.  I think God reminded me of a few things.  I liked that the worship music was included in the service.  The podcasts or vodcasts I know of don’t do that (admittedly, I only know of a few).

Overall, I think this is a brilliant idea.  Church online had more attendees than some small local churches I know.  There is even interactivity, via chat rooms and virtual hand raising.  People connecting and praying.

This is a great outreach opportunity.  The relative cost of going to church online is zip.  You can just jump in, no questions asked.  It allows for people wondering about God and church to check something out, and maybe get connected with a church and God.  It allows people who, for whatever reason, can’t make it to services to “go” to church.  This is leveraging the technology of the internet!

I think we should still seek face-to-face interactions in our communities, though.  Being at church online made me miss being with everyone.  I think that people connecting offline will never be replaced.  Not that this is what I think LifeChurch.tv is trying to do (they have physical campuses all over).

But church online is good.  Check out this post if you want proof!  God moves in it.  Welcome to a new era.

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Technology and the Future

I sat down and watched Michael Hyatt’s presentation at O’Reilly Tools of Change Publishing Conference on “Blogging as a Tool of Change.”  If you haven’t watched it, you should.  And it got me thinking on how we use all this new tech.

One thing that he said in the presentation really struck me.  “You’re not going to find the future unless you engage it.”  That seems so simple, but so elusive.  We can’t sit on the sidelines and expect to leverage these new technologies for our own good.

Change will come.  It always has and always will.  If you want to be a part of the change, you need to be involved.  Get dirty with it, try it out.  I have been finding out lately that the more tools I try, the more incredible the landscape becomes.  I see more opportunities and think of more ideas.

And make no mistake, the future is on the internet.

Just a few thoughts today.

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Looking for Meaning in Music, Part II

In my previous post, I said that music is essentially a vehicle of meaning.  Music communicates emotions, but can only communicate so many before something else is added.

Adding Layers

Adding words to a song makes it more specific.  The sounds of music are like broad strokes on the canvas.  Lyrics are the details.  They bring the fuzziness of emotions into focus, or increase the effect.

When you add somber lyrics to a somber tune, it intensifies the effect.  When you add worshipful words to a glorious melody, it makes you want to worship.  You can also add irony and tension.  If you mix the two (happy tune, sad lyrics) you can add shades of meaning, ranging from comical to satire.

This is why music says it better.  If you say “I love you” to your spouse, that says a lot.  If you sing it to your spouse, that adds the extra emotions.  (Valentine’s Day hint…)

Creating a Response

We write music to convey something.  The human who creates the music shapes the meaning.  And this applies, I think, to individual performances as well.  One band can mean one thing with a song, but another band plays it and it conveys something else.

We also have our own response.  Art is about expressing Truth beautifully.  As such, the same music can have different meanings to different people.  Rock music is a good example.  To some people, it means to express freely.  To others, it is connected with rebellion.  Always remember the context!  And when you use context well, it empowers the song you write.

Remember, oh you writers of music, the power you wield.

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Looking for Meaning in Music, Part I

Music as Language

Music is powerful to us humans.  We consume – no, devour – music for everything.  We play it for celebrations, we use it for sorrow, we use it to vent, we play it to romance.

Music at its core is a language.

Compare it to a spoken/written language.  Music has letters (notes), words (musical phrases), sentences (verses), and together they make stories (songs).  A song tells you something.  That something is its meaning.

Vehicles of Meaning

I read the phrase “language is a vehicle of meaning” and I immediately thought of music.  Music does the same.

For example, if I write a bouncy, light, skippy tune, you might think of something happy.  If I write, a dark, somber, plodding tune, you may feel something sad.  This effect is extremely powerful!  I can make you feel something with just timed sound.

However, I think there are some limits.  I can’t really make you think something specific, like say the day Dad took you to the ball game, or the feeling you felt when your best friend moved.

Music superimposes itself on us.  It uses our past.  If some soul had never, ever heard any music, they probably could guess the bouncy tune was happy, but they would not know that it was written to resemble the way a family dog bounced on everything.

This idea is important though.  There are certain emotions you can convey well, such as happiness, sorrow, longing, anger, or reverence.  Outside of these emotions, you would need some other experience or opinion.  If you heard a certain tune every time your parents were angry, then you would associate that tune with those events, even if the song does not deal with that.

Always search for the purpose of a song.  Especially the intent of the writer and performer.  The whole meaning of a song includes the human intent and the human interpretation.

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The Place of Art in the Church Part II

The purpose of all art in the Church is to glorify God.

When the Church creates art, it is expressing what the soul wants to say to God.  It is our expression of what God has revealed to us to be Truth (as in absolute Truth).  This can be in a worship song of adoration, a novel based on a biblical story, or a painting of a sunset.

So how is it that we glorify God with our art?

From my standpoint, I see three big ways art from the Church glorifies God.

Building Up

When art builds up the community of God – His Church – then the art brings glory to God.  Some examples include worship music and books dealing with our relationship with God.  When a local church sings praises to God, the people get closer to God.  When we read a book that shows us how to pray, then we are encouraged and given knowledge.  These things build the community.  As the community is strengthened in God, He is given the honor for it.

Reaching Out

When art reaches people outside of the Church – as in leading people to Christ – then the art brings glory to God as well.  When the Church grows, the fame of God increases.  He receives the credit.  Examples here include movies or plays that intentionally reach out to people.  If someone goes to a church Christmas production and realize that a relationship with God is what they need, then God receives glory.

Personal Expression

Art leads the soul to some Truth, and there God is given glory too.  This category is quite broad, and it also gets into some gray areas.  What I mean here are the works of art that point to God.  Much of Christian music can fall into this category.  Hawk Nelson doesn’t make music that is designed for worship.  They play music from a biblical standpoint, pointing out spiritual truths, or looking at life through the lens of their faith.  Much of literature (novels, poetry, stories, etc.) could fall in here.  Thomas Kinkade paints a beautiful picture, but he doesn’t paint (I don’t think) to reach out.  He paints because that is how he expresses beauty.  And that beauty, in some way, reflects the beauty of God.  When we see that, we thank God for beauty, and that glorifies Him.

This is most certainly an incomplete list.  And many of the examples could fit into more than one category.  Think of the Psalms.  Most of them could fit into the first and third categories easily.

The point is this: each category has a place in the realm of art from the Church.  Just because your music isn’t sung on Sunday mornings doesn’t mean it isn’t Church music!  Isn’t it wonderful that we have so many ways to glorify God?

So go, create!

Read Part I

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New Layout, New Comments, New Feed

If you’ve been following my tweets for the past few days, you may have noticed a few about changing up my blog’s layout.  Well, I think I’m done tweaking for now.  I’ve done some layout changes, and I think it looks good.  I’ve also set up a FeedBurner account to broadcast RSS feeds and to add an email subscription for my blog.  (I don’t think you’ll need to resubscribe if you already are, but it might help in the long run if you do.)  And finally, I’ve installed IntenseDebate for comments on the blog.  The look is still quite simple, and I like it like that.  Still, I may be adding some graphics here and there to add some color.

For those following on my Posterous and my WordPress accounts, my main blog is here.

Let me know what you think.

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The Future of Music and the Flat Rate

This topic has been around for a while now.  We talked about this very problem in a music business class I took in college (only a few years ago, but for digital things, that’s a while).  Is the music “flat rate” the answer for the music industry?

I say no.

Here’s why.

The flat rate would be essentially a universal internet user tax that would pay for all downloaded music.  That’s how I understand it.  There’s probably a thousand different variations, but that’s the basis.

One big problem is the people who don’t get their music online.  They subsidize the rest.  Why should I pay for Jonny’s 183 GB worth of music?  I only have 500 MB!

Another problem I see is that the music industry is essentially capping itself.  If the tax is say $2 per internet user, that only pays for 2 songs per internet connection.  If the average user downloads (or just listens) to more than that per whatever time period we use, then the industry loses money.  As a business model, you want to be paid for what you do.  It’s bad if you’re not compensated as much as you should.  If I continued to do that in say, a bakery, then I would go under.

Now, subscription based services seem fine to me, but they’re especially useful for people who do buy/use a lot of music.  If you’re going to buy 12 issues per year of some magazine, why not buy a subscription for the year and save some money?  But for the person who only buys 1 or 2 copies over the year, the subscription isn’t worth it.  They’ll pay less because they skipped the subcription.

By collecting the music fee, you take away that option for higher usage, and essentially make everyone pay a subscription fee.  It’s like charging someone $20 to walk in a record store saying “Take what you want.”  If you heard that, you’d go a pick out 20 or 30 CDs.  At $15 per CD, the store just lost money!

And the silly thing is, the music industry has been giving away free songs for years.  It’s called radio.  In fact, they’ve paid people to play music on the radio!  Now you’re telling me that they can’t figure out a way to monetize digital music other than by universally charging internet users?

Personally, I think things like Spotify or Pandora or YouTube are on the right track.  Free music is the ultimate end of the digital revolution.  It’s too easy to copy songs digitally and give them away for anyone to truly stop it now.  YouTube is like radio MTV.  Pandora is internet radio.  Spotify is more like a new breed of music, combining social media aspects with radio.  The trick is finding ways to create value in free music.

I don’t have an easy answer.  But I do know that by giving enough away for free, you generate interest that will probably lead to sales.  Charging a flat rate seems to be reaching to far, and I think there has to be a better way.

Any thoughts?

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The Place of Art in the Church

A question for the Church: What role does art serve?

I’ve been thinking about the “hows” of the above question.  How do we use art to glorify and worship God?  Do we only use certain things for a worship service?  Does it matter what styles we use in a worship service?  Can art be inherently good or bad? (Read my last post for some thoughts on that)  How can a single church use different styles of art and should they?

I think I’ll be posting a few times on these subjects, but for now, I’ll touch on the first question.

God is The Creator.  His Creation is full of variety, color, and beauty.  I live in the mountains of North Carolina, and most days I can see a sunset over the mountains on my way home from work.  It’s wonderful, it reminds me that God is Creator, and it tells me God is an artist.

Therefore, if God created us (humans) in His own image, then we have a creative drive in us.  If God created us with a creative drive and He commands us to love Him with our whole heart, soul, and mind (Matthew 22:37), then it follows that we should use our creativity to love and glorify God.

So, art from the Church (i.e. God’s people, not the building or service) should glorify God in some way.  This is not to say that all of our art should be directly about God, but I think it should be in light of God.  And it should not be all the same thing.  No two sunsets are the same, why should two paintings be (or why should they both be paintings)?

Put it this way.  Just because we are Christians does not mean we should be preaching in the streets 24/7.  We need rest, we need enjoyment, we need fellowship, the list goes on.  I can play the Wii with my wife or read a book just for fun.  But these things must all be submitted to God.  Same with art.

Art should be expressions of our experiences.  What we feel, what we see, what we know, what we believe.  The specific medium by which we show our art is less important.  Since God created us all different, we will show our creativity in different ways.  None is better than the other, and all can be used.

The principle idea here is that if the art is ultimately God-centered, then it glorifies God.  That is the answer to the question.  How do we glorify God with art?  By honoring Him – His nature, His name, His Son, His Spirit – in our art.

So for all of us creative types: remember who gave us creativity in the first place, and honor Him in what we create, whether that be worship music, novels, paintings, movies, or anything else.

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The Nature of Tools: Thoughts on Worship

I just read a blog post yesterday that inspired me to say something about tools.  I stumbled across this link on twitter in a search I have up in TweetDeck.  So here goes.

Is a tool inherently good or evil?  How about a fork?  Is it good?  Bad?

Seems a kind of silly question.  Let me rephrase it a bit: Is a weapon inherently good or evil?

Now that will get some responses.  A weapon generally is used to harm.  Most people would say that is an “evil” purpose.  But how about when it defends something from evil?  Is it now “good?”  Most would say that defending the innocent is good.  Why the difference?

It’s all about how the tool is used!  The intent of the heart decides what is good or evil.

The original post, if you didn’t read it, were about contemporary worship music and how the inherent quality of certain kinds of music (extreme paraphrase).  As a musician and as a Christian, I am deeply passionate about this subject.  So here are my thoughts in response.

Musical style is a tool.  Musical instruments are tools.  Tools are not inherently good or evil.  Therefore, no musical style should be considered good or evil.  If a musical style reaches a portion of our culture in such a way as to bring them to Christ and repent, then why should we not use said style?  If a musical style brings us to worship our Creator God who wants nothing more than to fellowship with his people, then why should we not use it?

My biggest problem of the “Which musical style is the best for worship?” debate is who gets to be arbiter and judge?  Who decides that rock music is evil and that folk music is good?  Or that classical music is worthless and rap is relevant?  God is the only one who can judge the heart and soul of a man.  Period.  If you don’t understand why someone is moved by a certain genre, try to understand.  If you still don’t, try and find out why.  Agree to disagree, but don’t say one style is better for worship than another.

I think I need to put a disclaimer in right here.  I am not condoning a “Whatever works for you” brand of theology.  That gets into some dangerous waters.  God is the judge, so go to Him for your answers.  Listening to questionable lyrics that talk about sex explicitly, or have rampant profanity, or hold to very ungodly ideologies is probably not a good idea.  We are to be holy as God is holy, so what we take in needs to be controlled.

That said, how does instrumental music (i.e. devoid of lyrics) become sexual?  Or filled with profanity?  Or rebels against God?  How do drums depict wrong affections whereas piano depicts right affections?  If I remember my music history correctly, the piano (or the fortepiano as it was originally called) was not accepted into the church rapidly.  It was seen as an evil instrument, and that the organ should be played in church instead.  Sounds familiar…  And what do we see today?  Piano is considered an acceptable instrument.  Funny how that works.

All art, I believe, is viewed through the lens of one’s own values, views, and experiences.  That means, if you think that the electric guitar is not an instrument to be used for sacred music, you won’t like modern praise music that uses it.  There’s nothing wrong with not liking something, or saying that you feel the presence of God better if you listen to Style A than Style B.  I don’t like pickles, but my wife likes pickles.  I love fish, but my wife does not.  Both were created by God.  Which one is better?  Who is more right?  Neither.  It’s a preference.  But to say one is holy and one is not makes a statement I don’t want to make.

And I can’t understand how one style can be acceptable and one cannot.  Art is subjective.  It’s not concrete.  Offering sacrifices was a concrete deal.  There were certain animals you were to sacrifice for certain things, at certain times, in line with your means.  So how do we make the jump that music for worship has the same concrete ideas?  It’s the same thing as saying only one set of chords are acceptable.  Boy, wouldn’t that be boring!  It’d become a ritual!  Not an overflow.

So here’s an extreme example.  If we take instrument restrictions to the logical maximum, then we should only play with instruments that the Bible mentioned.  Which would be, I think, basically the lyre, cymbals, and our voices.  I’m probably leaving something out, but you get the point.  Our God is creative.  He is the Ultimate Artist.  Therefore, why should we stifle our creativity for worshipping Him?  I think God, being the lover of our souls that He is, enjoys hearing all of our ways to worship Him.

The blog post did make some good points.  It urged us to pay attention to how we worship.  Worship is not just music.  It is us responding rightly to all that God truly is.  If we go to musical worship and just follow after the cool emotions of being in a crowd, watching a show full of lights and pictures, waiting for the fuzzies to come over us, then we are there for the wrong reasons.  But if those outward expressions of love and fear are flowing from a truthful realization of who God is, then that is true worship.  It doesn’t matter if that style is classical, rock, rap, folk, blues, jazz, metal, pop, or whatever!  If God is truly at the center, then He will be praised.

And it doesn’t have to be music!  It could be a painting where you see the true suffering of Christ on the cross, bearing the weight of our shame to save us from our sin.  You see that and thank God for his grace, and praise Him for it.  Or it could be a work of fiction, where you see God’s eternal pursuit of His children no matter the cost, and you realize that you have been running from God and turn back to Him and praise Him.  Or it could be a film, where you finally see the gravity of your sin and the fullness of God’s holiness and glory, and you realize that one day you will not have the option to turn from it, so you turn to God and praise Him for it.

The tools are a means to an end.  I don’t believe that they carry with them an inherent value of good or evil.  And just because someone does something evil with a particular tool does not make that tool evil.  Neither does it make the tool good if good comes from that tool.  The tool is subject to the heart of its user.  And the heart is subject to God.  If God can use us as tools to advance His Kingdom, surely he could use rock music for good.

If you have any thoughts or scripture to share, please do.  I always want to be learning about my passions.  And if you disagree, please post some comments about why, but do so in love.  Thanks.

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What Kind of Art Moves You?

Here’s a question for all of you to answer: What kind (or kinds) of art moves you?  And why does it do that?  What are you passionate about?  What stuff do you read/see/hear that makes you understand something deeper?  You get the idea.  I had been thinking of how I love music and writing.  Naturally, I wondered what other people liked.  So I thought I’d start a little conversation about it on my blog.

And to start off, here’s mine.

First and foremost, I’m a music guy.  I think music is the best art form on the planet!  Anything from John Williams to Kutless will get me excited.  I feel like music is a universal expression (any human can understand a song).  Every culture has it.  Also, merging that universal aspect (i.e. the non-lingual portion) with poetic words can express meaning or revelation better than anything.

That said, reading a book still gets me.  A great storyteller can capture my imagination and send it off to places I never knew to look for.  Movies apply here too.  I love Star Wars (all six!) for its story.  It’s an epic, and it deals with deep human emotions.  Babylon 5 also has that kind of story (although I’m only through season 2).

Okay, so what kind of art do you like and why?  I’d love to hear from you all.

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