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03.10.11

Lent, worship leading, and really annoying waiters…

Filed under: willow,worship — 11:30 am

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…

03.03.11

returning to who we were made to be

Filed under: God's movement,willow,worship — 9:29 pm

Last weekend at Willow, we spent the first thirty minutes of our service focusing on the scriptural idea of repentance. After we sang my new song “God’s Children” and the ubiquitous “Mighty to Save”, I had the opportunity to share a few thoughts about repentance, and lead our community through a reflection.  It ended up being really meaningful to me (this idea is one of the reasons I’m still a Christian), and so I thought I’d share it here…

Many thanks to Rob Bell for unpacking “t’shuva” and inviting me into a new understanding of repentance.
(I still remember the couch I was sitting on when he said “Do you know what my definition of repentance is? To return to who God’s made you to be.”  That moment changed me.)

After we spent some time reflecting on this and “turning back” as a community, we looked at Luke 15. In the middle of telling three stories of repentance/return/rediscovery, Jesus told his disciples:

“I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven
over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons
who do not need to repent.” (Luke 15:7)

Is it possible that every time one of us “returns to who we were made to be”, all Heaven erupts in celebration? Is it possible that every time you or I turn away from greed to generosity…from gossip to forgiveness…from lust to contentment…etc…that Heaven cheers and dances and rejoices?  How might that change how we approach every moment?

May our lives be about constantly turning back toward the fullest LIFE in Christ…and causing a holy uproar of celebration to break out in Heaven.

Aaron

02.01.11

Some reflections on teaching a new song…

Filed under: music,willow,worship — 6:40 pm

Today, on Willow’s worship blog, I posted a video and some thoughts about teaching a new song called “God’s Children”.  Feel free to check it out at http://beyondsinging.willowcreek.org.

01.15.11

old and new

Filed under: willow,worship — 7:00 pm

Last weekend at Willow we began with two really old songs:  “Our Great Savior” (the great hymn from 1910) and “Turn Me Around” (an old spiritual).  Both of these songs move me deeply.  We took a tribal, percussive approach to the first and a 1982 pop/funk approach to the second.  Here’s a clip of both…

If you’re interested in hearing more about this set, or any music/worship experience we have at Willow, feel free to check out our worship blog:  http://www.willowcreek.org/beyondsinging

12.28.10

Christmas silliness

Filed under: life,willow — 6:42 pm

Matt and I took a couple phone videos during the Christmas services, and last night I used my extraordinarily mediocre editing skills to put them together.  Ridiculous.  Enjoy…

11.19.10

willow’s worship blog

Filed under: willow,worship — 2:58 pm

These days at Willow Creek, we’re passionate about helping our community dive deeply into worship.  We don’t want to just be people who sing at church, but a community that prays, serves, gives, listens, and honors God with every fiber of our being.  Imagine how much good a worshiping community like this could do in the world?!?

And so as a small encouragement, our team has launched a worship blog called BEYOND SINGING.  This is where we share the heart behind the worship experiences, and ways/resources to take them deeper.  Check it out and please let us know if it’s helpful!

willowcreek.org/beyondsinging

11.05.10

weekend review: Beautiful Things

Filed under: music,willow,worship — 10:58 am

Last weekend was one of my favorites in a long time, largely because it was built around the stunning Gungor song “Beautiful Things”. I can’t describe how deeply this song moves me, and what a healing role it’s played in some of the difficult season of this last year. Check out more of Gungor’s music here.

After turning our attention upward with “O For A Thousand Tongues” and Becky’s soaring version of “Revelation Song”, I shared a little about how the words “God’s faithfulness” have lost their meaning for me. Maybe I’ve been in too many church services, but hearing someone talk about “God is so faithful…” tends to sound like a hallow Christian cliché in my ears. However, when we tell stories of how GOD enters into our darkest places to bring Light…and wraps himself around our brokenness to bring healing…. When we talk about how GOD never tires of making beautiful things out of the dust, His “faithfulness” starts to mean something again.

And so we launched into “Beautiful Things”. During the song, Holly acted as curator – leading us through three pieces of art that members of our community created inspired by these ideas. The art was great, and I personally found the stories to be incredibly moving and holy. If God can bring goodness out of the pain and disappointment in their lives, then maybe He can with mine. Their honesty brought me so much hope.

This song/stories experience culminated in letting 6 or 7 scripture passages about God’s faithfulness wash over us – hopefully now with new depth, flesh, and nuance to them – and we stood and sang the great hymn “Great is Thy Faithfulness” together.

I don’t know about you, but I really needed this reminder. Thank You, God, that You never give up on us and can bring beauty out of absolutely anything…

11.01.10

what to do with disappointment

Filed under: God's movement,willow — 7:46 pm

In the last two weekends, I heard two very different preachers talk compellingly about the same idea: 

The world is broken.  Life doesn’t always work out the way we want it to.
As Christians, what do we do with this?

Last weekend, our band had the opportunity to lead worship at Mars Hill church.  (It was wildly exciting to be back, and felt like a big family reunion!)  Rob Bell talked about pain and disappointment through the image of God as gardener…patient, gently sowing seeds, and waiting for the right moment.  Is it possible that when God doesn’t seem to be “fixing our problems”, he’s actually intimately involved with the slow work of redemption?  Rob ended with this quote:

“There is a tension we experience between how the world is and how we want the world to be.
The kingdom that Jesus speaks of is about experiencing in that tension more and more and more and
more and more and more and more and more and more and more and
more of God’s peace and love and joy and grace right now.

This kingdom Jesus speaks of starts small and grows slowly
and demands patience and takes its time… But it is always good news.”

And then this weekend at Willow, Bill Hybels talked about the young, melancholy prophet Jeremiah.  Every assignment that God gave him ended in some kind of failure and physical abuse.  At one point, Jeremiah yelled out “God, you seduced me!  Like some creepy old man with a young women, you tricked and took advantage of me!”  And yet through all the honesty and tears, Jeremiah went on to write one of the most beautiful tributes to God’s goodness in all the scriptures.  (Lam 3:22-24)

When life crashes and burns, Bill challenged us to follow Jeremiah’s example and (1) Be completely and brutally honest with God.  Pour your heart out to Him.  He can take it.  And (2) Don’t quit.  Keep following God.  Don’t give in or sell out or ever, ever give up.

(Listen to Rob’s message or Watch Bill’s message.)

10.07.10

a grand experiment

Filed under: God's movement,willow,worship — 4:31 pm

I’ve been more and more inspired lately by the idea that we (the Church) are the “priesthood of all believers”.  Church is NOT where a couple professional pastors serve the spiritual consumers…but instead a place where we all have a part to play in serving each other and the world!  We are the body of Christ, and every body part is critically important.

In the same way, worship is not the same thing as a concert.  At a concert, the few (on stage) perform for the many (in the seats).  But in worship, the many (in the seats and on stage) perform for the One (The Almighty).  Every single voice matters.  Every single heart matters.  God hears it all…and it matters.

But here’s the conflict:  Many modern churches are not set up for this.  In fact, many sanctuaries/auditoriums communicate the exact opposite.  The chairs all face the big stage while a few professional pastors speak into microphones while being projected onto huge screens.  This is not wrong, of course, but sometimes I wonder if our physical environment undermines our message.

Is it even possible for someone to teach about the priesthood of all believers while their face is on a jumbotron?  Or, as Shane Hipps so eloquently talks about, does the medium overpower the message?

And so wrestling with all this, we tried a little experiment last weekend at Willow.  Our band never got up on stage, but instead lead worship from the middle of the community.  We also worked hard to use the screens mostly for lyrics (instead of showing video of the band).  It was awkward, beautiful, nerve-wracking, and exciting.  The experience was met with mixed reviews, but it certainly got our community talking about worship and participation and “who’s the focus of our gatherings, anyway?”  I’m really thankful to the Willow leadership for being open to this idea and THE GREATEST PRODUCTION TEAM IN HISTORY for making it happen!

Check out one of the songs (featuring willow creek’s most mediocre guitar player)…

09.21.10

weekend review: The Box

Filed under: creativity,God's movement,willow,worship — 5:27 pm

This last weekend (9.19.10) at Willow was really exciting to be a part of.

After the pre-service – Izzy’s killer string quartet arrangement of “Today” by The Smashing Pumpkins – we launched into a quiet chorus of “I Could Sing of Your Love Forever” and a corporate reading of Paul’s great prayer of Eph 3:14-19.  This mediation on God’s sweeping LOVE morphed into “Thank You (You’re Love is Everywhere)” – the really uplifting and quirky song by Glen Phillips.  I especially love the “won’t you let it flow through me…” bridge.

But before we got to that bridge, Sharon stepped up and tore the roof off with a song/rap she wrote for.  The band did our best to lock down the groove of “Family Affair” by Mary J, but really, Sharon carried us on her much cooler, much more soulful back.  It was SO fun to watch such a gifted and passionate person bring what only she can bring.  Check it out here…

The heart of the worship set, however, was “Cannot Keep You” by Gungor.  (You can read more about why I love his music here.)  Using a bit of performance art and a whole lot of Blaine Hogan‘s visual genius, we attempted to bring this song to life and then invite our community into some of the deeper questions:  In what ways do we try to contain God?  Why?  Am I willing to invite His “uncontainable-ness” to have full reign in my life?  What could that look like?

Here’s the whole experience…

08.31.10

Weekend Review: Grace

Filed under: God's movement,music,willow — 11:00 pm

The weekend before last at Willow was created around Ethan Nickerson’s song “Grace”.  (Those of you from Grand Rapids may know Ethan’s music from Mars Hill or his band The Mines…he’s a great singer, musician, and songwriter.  And a really great guy.)  Anyway, after beginning with Matt Lundgren’s song “Love Justice” and an expanded version of “O For A Thousand Tongues”, we launched into an deep meditation on Grace:  how beautiful it is and yet how often we run from it. Holly began by sharing a few thoughts about Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables and how she wrestles with grace.  Her final question was “Am I ever going to trust this grace? Or am I going to be a person of scarcity, constantly grabbing, paying penance and running…” This honest confession bled right into Ethan’s song…

Download “Grace” from itunes here.

After this haunting reflection on Grace, we landed in a minute or two of silence.  Space.  A small chance for us all to say exactly what we needed to say to God.  This was my favorite part of the service. To close the experience we stood and sang the old Wesley hymn “And Can it Be (Amazing Love)”, and marveled together that God could love screw-ups like us.  But he does!  Grace is real.  And even though we run from it every day, and kick and scream until it catches us, it will not stop the chase.  God, thank You for not giving up on us…

Finally, after the service, I did a short interview with Ethan about the weekend.  Here’s what he said…

06.16.10

What I would quit my job over…

Filed under: God's movement,leadership,willow — 12:23 pm

For the last couple weeks, our Willow programming team has been talking about our deepest values.  Bill encouraged us to really dig down and ask the question: “What do I believe SO deeply, that if it were not so, I would have to quit?” Great question!  After much thought, here’s what I’m bringing to today’s discussion…

Courage. The number one thing I’ve admired about Willow over the years is their courage to try new things and blaze new trails in the name of Christ.  Out of love for God and people – not just for innovation’s sake – Willow has consistently followed God into the huge risks that bring the Kingdom in huge ways.  I would quit if we ever lost this revolutionary spirit.  I would quit if we ever let the mindset of “pleasing our consumers” hijack our invitation to join God’s messy, risky Movement of Redemption.  I’d quit if we ever got safe.

Outward. The potential amount of good that Willow could do on planet earth is staggering.  What if Celebration of Hope is just the tip of the iceberg?  I would quit if we ever became more about building an institution than serving the world.

Bigger Stream. Related to “outward,” I’m excited to invite our community into a bigger movement of transformation, service, and community.  Weekend services are important, but only as one tributary flowing into a bigger river.  (Of all the “one another” verses in scripture, only a few of them happen well in a service.)  How are we helping our community become Church in the widest possible sense?  I would quit if we never found that bigger calling, but settled for merely creating services to fill seats.

What about those of you who are a part of a church…Do these connect with you?  What else would you add?

06.07.10

weekend review: Psalm 139

Filed under: music,willow,worship — 2:30 pm

This weekend, we spent the first half of our service praying, singing, meditating, and reading through Psalm 139.  It’s such a profound chapter, and my only regret is not having more time to dive in!  A number of people asked about the song Becky sang (inventively titled “Psalm 139″), so feel free to click HERE for the recording, lyrics, and story behind the song.  Here’s the live video from the 11:15am service.  (If possible,  listen on headphones or with good speakers!  Yeah, I’m a sound geek…)

All weekend long, as we invited God to “search us” and “find any offensive ways in us” and “lead us in the way everlasting”, I kept thinking about this quote:  “We are not punished for our sins;  we are punished BY our sins.” God is not waiting in shadows, ready to smack us when we mess up.  He is humbly knocking at the door, hoping we’ll let Him rescue us from our self-sabotaging actions.  He is inviting us into the best possible way to live.

“The sayings of Jesus are most often taken as expressions of some ethereal truth for especially religious people.  Instead, they are mere observations about how life actually works.” (Dallas Willard).   For example, we don’t avoid gossip because “God said so and will punish us”. . .we avoid gossip because it wrecks relationships.   The same could be said of following God’s wisdom about rest, sex, money, etc. . .

How would our lives change if we stopped seeing God as The Enforcer, and began to embrace Him as The Emancipator?

05.30.10

Why we play so much Sigur Ros at church

Filed under: God's movement,music,willow,worship — 2:02 pm

I was just explaining to my uncle why we do so much Sigur Ros inspired music at Willow, and here’s what I finally stumbled onto:

“Many of us come to church looking for transcendence, but christian music often feels like ‘correct ideas set to a catchy tune’. And there’s nothing less transcendent than a comercial. But Sigur Ros (and bands like them) bypass our analytical, rational selves and invite us into deeper, richer, and more dangerous places. This is a profound mystery, but I think it has something to do with tapping into that ancient, universal ache…and then honoring it with appropriate sounds and space.”

I don’t want our worship gatherings to be explainable (aka fogettable) propaganda. We don’t need more songs that try to market Jesus to fickle consumers. Instead, let’s dig down into the deepest streams – into that shared longing for something bigger and more beautiful than ourselves – only to discover that the Loving Creator has been there all along.

I’m not entirely sure how to do this (other than learning from Sigur Ros and other “sonic mystics”) but we sure are enjoying the journey. Thoughts? What are you discovering?

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