Welcome! Thanks for checking out my blog about music, worship, and trying to join God in his work to restore the world. I'm excited to share some ideas – in both directions. Let the conversation begin. . .
This weekend at Willow, my friends Becky Johnson and Sharon Irving created something to help us prepare for communion. It was absolutely breathtaking, so I wanted to share it with you. (About half way through, the video goes live.) Enjoy!
You can read about the whole service at Willow’s worship blog: beyondsinging.willowcreek.org
My friends Blaine, Bjorn, Paul, and Rhianna have been pouring themselves into this short film
for the Willow Christmas services. It looks amazing! I can’t wait to be a part of the live soundtrack…
Come join us at one of the services! Info HERE.
Mac's first bath
Hey, I’m so sorry for the ten days since the last post. It’s been a crazy couple weeks! Here are a few things that have been going on…
(1) The baby! Mac’s first 5 weeks on planet earth have been fantastic and exhausting. We’re so ridiculously thankful and happy…but could use a decent night’s sleep. But other than 48 scary hours in the hospital when he was only ten days old (which turned out to be nothing more than a cold!), all is well with the little guy.
(2) Shauna and Henry. I feel like the luckiest guy in the world.
Henry's 5th Birthday
(3) A New Liturgy. The last few weeks have been really busy in my little home studio – working on
Liturgy No 2: “Blessed to Be a Blessing”. (You can check out pictures and updates at the New Liturgy Facebook Page.) As of right now, three out of the four movements are finished, and the final movement will be done next week. I can’t possibly convey how excited I am about all this…and really look forward to sharing it with you! anewliturgy.com.
tracking bass drum in my living room
Ada Bible Church
(4) Leading Worship. In October, I lead worship five different times, 12 services: at Willow three times, once at Ada Bible Church, and once at Mars Hill. And the next couple weeks are equally full. But honestly, I love it. It’s such a huge honor to get to serve communities in this way, and I can’t wait for this coming weekend…
[By the way, NT Wright is coming to speak at Willow this Saturday and Sunday. He's a genius and I can't wait to hear what he brings. His new book is Simply Jesus.]
There’s so much more to share! Coming soon…
Ian and the team
This weekend, we had the huge privilege of leading worship at Willow with my friend Ian Morgan Cron. Ian is an author of two phenomenal books, a great musician, and crazy smart.
Ian grew up Roman Catholic, planted a non-denomina-tional church in his 30s, and is now an Episcopal Priest. As you might guess, he has a fascinating perspective about God, church, worship, and liturgy…and so we invited him to Willow Creek to share some of his journey and lead us in a liturgical experience.
After reading a bit from his book Jesus, My Father, the CIA, and me…, Ian lead us in the Kyrie Eleison – which means “Lord, have mercy”. He taught a very simple refrain, and then guided us through a number of liturgical prayers. We (the band) did our best to think “What would Sigur Ros sound like in a Roman Catholic cathedral?”, and accompanied the prayers with a moody soundtrack that built and built and finally exploded into a soaring “Lord have mercy; Lord have mercy.”
As it all landed, Ian invited us to quietly pray:
Have mercy upon us, most merciful Father;
in your compassion forgive us our sins,
known and unknown,
things done and left undone;
and so uphold us by your Spirit
that we may live and serve you in newness of life,
to the honor and glory of your Name;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
…and then he took the biggest risk of the weekend. Ian tenderly said, “I believe that we all are the priesthood of believers, and so I’m going to ask you to do something that might feel weird. Please turn to the person next to you, look them in the eye, and say ‘In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven’”.
The next few moments were as holy as it gets. Such a simple thing, but so powerful.
I’m really thankful to Ian for coming to serve our church – and exposing us to an entirely different experience of worship and the liturgy. (You can learn more about Ian at iancron.com.)
For the last 35 years, our pastor (Bill) has been prophetically declaring that “the church is the hope of the world”. And I couldn’t agree more. The Almighty God is actively healing and redeeming the entire world, and doing it primarily through human beings who are willing to offer ourselves to this Movement.
But I’ve been noticing a disturbing trend that – in my opinion – wrecks this truth.
just a building
In the wake of a handful of well-known pastors (Francis Chan, Rob Bell, etc) leaving their churches to pursue other opportunities, there’s been some grumbling and criticizing from those who stay. One very influential pastor said it like this: “The local church has been, and always will be, the PRIMARY tool for God’s will in the world. Other ministries are important but secondary.”
But wait… How is he defining “the local church”?
If he’s saying that “The primary tool for God’s will in the world is when God’s followers humbly submit themselves to His dream for humanity and to each other in the power of His Spirit”, then I completely agree!
But if he’s saying that “The primary tool for God’s will in the world is any 501(c)(3) organization that calls itself a church, and anything outside of it’s walls is ‘important but secondary’”, then I absolutely disagree!
How dare church leaders claim to have the most important job in the universe,
and try to reduce everyone else to “secondary”! That is religion at it’s worst.
You can be God’s hands and feet as you teach middle school math.
You can be a part of God’s Movement of grace while wearing your blue Best Buy shirt.
You can help heal the world as you bag groceries.
You can also hurt people as a pastor.
And you can cause great division and ugliness while on a church staff.
And you can run from God while giving a sermon.
As the bible says, “People look upon the outside appearance, but God looks at the heart.”
And over and over in history, we see God pass over the people who have all the right credentials and choose to use the excluded, underdog, broken, and flawed. In fact, according to the story of scriptures, this seems to be God’s primary way of working in the world.
So if you are a pastor or church-worker (as I am), please continue to pour out your heart and life for your community, but let’s not take ourselves too seriously. Okay?
And if you don’t work at a church, please continue to pour out your heart and life for your community, and take your calling to ministry very very seriously. The world desperately needs you.
God is really proud of you in your blue Best Buy shirt.
I love this song. We sang it this weekend at Willow – and by “we” I mean “Becky and Sharon” –
and the song has been lodged inside me ever since. (You can read about how we used it and why at beyondsinging.willowcreek.org, Willow’s worship blog). Here is a video of All Sons and Daughters performing it live in the studio…
Jesus on the cross
This weekend at Willow was one of the more moving communion experiences I’ve experienced in a long time. To help prepare us for this holy sacrament, we spent 6 or 7 minutes meditating on eight stations of the cross. The title would come up (e.g. “Station 1: Pilate Condemns Jesus to Die”), followed by the scripture (e.g. “ Pilate gave the crowd what it wanted and turned Jesus over for whipping and crucifixion. Mark 15:15″), and then a haunting piece of art capturing this scene came up on the screen. And as we meditated on this image, we tried to enter the story as deeply as we could. What might it have felt like to be there? What must have been going through the mind of Jesus? What does this moment in history 2000 years ago mean for my life right now? The ancient practice of The Stations of the Cross guided us through an intense journey.
During this experience, we (the band) played the haunting “Hand Covers Bruise” by Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross. This song is as beautiful as it is creepy, and it captured some of that intense, mournful, unsettling emotion that must have been present on that execution day in the first century. Listen to it here…
After this reflection, we took bread and juice in sober silence. You could have heard a pin drop. I’m not sure what was going on in everyone else, but all I could think about was my own brokenness. I have failed to live up to who God has created me to be in a thousand ways. A million ways. And yet God has not and will not ever give up on me. In fact, as Brennon Manning says, God is quite fond of me. And you.
Finally, through tears and throats coated with a shot of grape juice, we stood and bellowed
the old hymn “Jesus Paid it All”…
I hear the Saviour say:
“Thy faith indeed is small
Child of weakness watch and pray
Find in me thine all in all”.
Jesus paid it all
All to him I owe
Sin had left a crimson stain
He washed it white as snow
Wow, session 5 of the Leadership Summit (called “Tough Callings”) just finished, and it messed me up. Something is stirring deep inside.
right before session 5
I had the opportunity to help lead the first few minutes of the session (reading from Colossians 1, the Charlie Hall song “Center,” and the classic “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus”) with a killer team of some of my favorite people. I love our team. And I’m not sure how it sounded around the country, but the people here in South Barrington sang their hearts out.
After a few more songs, I found my seat and got ambushed by the stories, songs, and prayers of people who have received hard callings…people who have given up everything to serve the poor and most forgotten people on earth. One after another, these stories pushed and pulled me into some deep and uncomfortable places, and I’m still feeling it. Here’s the question I can’t get beyond…
Am I in the place I am in, doing what I’m doing, because God
has called me? Or is this the best gig I can find?
Am I following Jesus into the life he’s made me to live, or am I just unconsciously drifting from “what I think is best” to “what feels right” to “what makes the most sense?” Is it possible that I’m living the kind of comfortable life I’ve always wanted to live, but just overlaying spiritual language on top of it? When I pray “God, what do you want me to do?,” am I actually saying “God, here’s what I’m going to do…please bless it?” I’m not sure. These are heavy questions that I need to keep digging into.
Thanks for the grace to let me wrestle with all this out loud. What do you think? Do you ever feel a similar tension in your life?
A couple hours ago, Bill addressed some drama that has been brewing about Willow’s Leadership Summit.
I love how he handled it and feel really proud…
This Mother’s Day weekend at Willow, we dusted off the stunning Alanis Morissette song “That I Would Be Good” to give voice to the deep longing and fear that so many mothers and women feel on a daily basis. (I’d argue that most men feel this too, if we can admit it). In the cracks of this morning’s rehearsal, my mind wandered to some other Alanis songs, and I started playing that haunting piano intro to “Uninvited“. Numerous people commented how stirring that song is. One friend even mentioned afterward, “Aaron, that little melody moves me more deeply than any of the worship songs you’re playing today.” And it got me wondering…
Why was the most evocative, emotionally honest moment of the service restricted to sound check?
Why don’t more of these moments happen in our services?
Is there a place for these haunting, moody emotions in worship,
or should we just sing happy songs?
Theologically and theoretically, I believe that we HAVE to be honest about the deep ache inside every one of us, even in worship. Especially in worship! The Light only makes sense in context of the darkness. Almost all the art that moves me deeply has a little bit of melancholy…a touch of sadness…a bit of that longing for how things are supposed to be…a cry that mourns our incompleteness. But it doesn’t leave us there. It honestly and courageously wraps its arms around the dark reality, and then calls us upward toward Hope.
Great art (and great worship) is not afraid of the ugliness while unapologetically pursuing the beauty.
I believe that to my core. But I don’t know how to help this happen in a mega-church worship service. Really. No one is stopping me – I just don’t know how to do it well. Any thoughts?
In one of Sufjan Steven’s greatest songs (Casimir Pulaski Day), he sings a haunting line admitting “I was crying in the bathroom.” Well, I did that today.
This week, I’ve had the thrill of leading worship at the WCA’s Transformation Intensive conference. In many ways, it’s been an un-conference….unplugged, understated, and all about the content. I couldn’t love it more.
Dallas Willard
The first teacher was Dallas Willard, one of my heroes. He gave a lecture about transformation that shook me to my core and reminded me again why the invitation of Jesus really is the greatest news on earth. (I’ll post the notes on my blog soon).
But this morning, I got to nervously share with him the 60 second version of my story: “Dallas, I got cynical in college and my faith stopped working for me. Christianity as “how to go to Heaven some day” was no longer compelling and I was thinking about leaving the whole thing. But then someone recommended your book, The Divine Conspiracy, and while reading chapter 2, I was born again again.”
He got a little embarrassed and looked down, but I kept going. “Dallas, I’ve never met you, but you’ve been one of the primary voices for why I’m a Christian…and why I still want to be. Thank you.” He sheepishly said thanks and I shuffled out the room.
But as I walked down the hall, I could feel something building inside me…and so I walked over to the downstairs bathroom, sat back by the empty showers, and bawled my eyes out.
I cried because I almost missed out on LIFE to the full.
I cried because I was so thankful that someone like Dallas could show the gospel to be as beautiful as it really is – when all I could see was ugliness.
I cried out of thankfulness that God didn’t leave me to wallow in my cynicism, but rescued me.
If you know me, you know how rare this kind of thing is. My Scandinavian male ability to bury my emotions is usually spectacular. But today, I’m just so thankful to be a part of such a great Story: getting to join God in what God is doing to restore all things.
“When we are invited into life in Christ Jesus, we are offered the
greatest opportunity of our lives – the opportunity of a vivid companionship
with Him, in which we will learn to be like Him and live as He lived.”
-Dallas Willard
On Sunday, I had the rare opportunity to spend the morning with Christians, the afternoon with Muslims, and the evening with some Jewish friends. While the packed day of conversation pushed my introverted self a little far, my exhausted head hit the pillow feeling really alive and thankful. Here’s the day…
the band
As you may have guessed, the morning was at Willow Creek…leading worship with a few of my favorite people. We decided to do an unplugged Mumford and Sons inspired set at the front of the stage. It was a blast. We sang and prayed and pounded floor toms and clapped and tried to lift up The Almighty as highly as we could! I’m so grateful to be a part of a team who’s willing to try anything – and make it great.
After a quick lunch, I drove out to the Midwest Islamic Center, Masjid Al-Huda, in Schaumburg. A few weeks ago, after emailing and asking if someone would be willing to meet with me to help me learn about Islam, a kind man named Nazir invited me to their center. I confessed to him that I was a Christian who lived in the area – but embarrassingly – didn’t have a single Muslim friend, and asked him a number of questions. We had a great conversation, and he invited me to observe their midday prayer.
Masjid Al-Huda
The highlight of our time was when Nazir said “We honor Jesus. We believe he was the Messiah, born of a virgin, and we try to obey all his teachings. But it seems like Christians are way more focused on what Paul said than what Jesus said.“ Fascinating. (And difficult to disagree with!)
dinner with Rabbi Rosen
Finally, our “Middle East Engagement Team” had dinner with Rabbi Brant Rosen and a few members of his Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation in Evanston. These deeply spiritual brothers and sisters have given their lives to peace-making and justice, and our group felt an immediate bond. We asked what it was like to be them, heard inspiring/heartbreaking stories, and discussed possible ways to work for peace together. It was a wonderful evening. Rabbi Rosen’s comment “The best way to fight extremism is to give people hope” seemed to sum up the night…and possibly the entire day! Definitely check out his bold and insightful blog here.
passover table
Last night, the Willow community shared a Passover Seder meal together. It was a beautiful, solemn, holy, inspiring evening that pushed some of us out of our comfort zones, and invited us all into a deeper understanding and experience of God’s Redemptive Story.
The evening was masterfully guided by Justin Kron, a Jewish follower of Christ who has been a part of the Willow family for a number of years. His insight into the symbolism of the passover meal and his challenge to bring these profound ideas into our present lives was a huge gift to every one of us. What a night!
The music was very simple, reflective, and mournful. We sang four classic hymns of the faith: “Come Ye Sinners”, “When I Survey”, “Nothing But the Blood”, and “Amazing Grace”. The brilliant cellist (Wendy) anchored us, both sonically and emotionally.
Personally, this was my third Seder dinner experience, but they seem to only get richer. Last night reminded me that we are not the beginning of this story…not even close! We come from a long, long line of people who have been walking with God – some who look very different from us – and there will be many, many more to come. So may we take our place in this holy parade with great humility and courage. Peace.
the rhodes
Wendy and the table
Nicolaes Maes
Last night, we celebrated Ash Wednesday (if “celebrated” is the right word) at Willow by praying through the Ash Wednesday liturgy from The Book of Common Prayer. It was quiet and heavy and somber and beautiful, and I loved joining up with the millions of other brothers and sisters around the world praying the exact same words on that day. We are all tiny players in a huge, epic Story.
But the most moving moment of the night (for me, anyway) was the 2-3 minutes of silence. After the Litany of Penitence, we simply stopped and sat in the presence of God. I can’t begin to describe how holy it was.
Which got me thinking: Even with all the creative energy of our Programming Team, and all the technical ability of our Production team, there is nothing we could have created that would have been more powerful than simply getting out of the way. Even the most brilliant idea wouldn’t have added to the silence.
Is it possible that the fundamental role of a worship leader is to get out of the way? To create space as soon and as often as possible?
Have you ever had a waiter at a restaurant keep inserting himself into the conversation at your table? You appreciated his witty banter and knowledge of the menu upon arrival, but once the food came, you really wanted him to disappear so you could focus on the purpose of the meal: connecting with the other person at your table. The best waiter understands that you didn’t come to the restaurant to see him. And their goal is not for people to say “Wow, he was a great waiter”…or even “Wow, that was a great meal.”….but instead, “Wow, I had a profound connection with my friend(s) around the table.”
To all my worship leader friends…may we be the kinds of pastors who know how to greet our community with grace and skill, connect them to the other people at their table (God, and those in their community), and then get the heck out of the way.
Excited to be in this with you…