e*g ... final week

For: The Institute of Contemporary and Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen's University, Essentials Green Online Worship Theology Course with Dan Wilt

Well...the end is here. This is the last week of the 15 week worship theology course, the impetus for this blog. I have plenty of material to blog about for a very long time, but without an imposed deadline by someone other than myself, this may be the last post for a while. If you've enjoyed reading my thoughts here, you can say a prayer that I'll stay inspired and motivated to continue writing.
Essentials Green has focused on core values in the Vineyard: Intimacy and Integrity, Accessibility and Cultural Relevance, Kingdom Expectation, and Spiritual Formation.

My creative project is a painting of a woman, pregnant with these values. Here's what I wrote about it in my class:

I know that, essentially, the creative project is meant to be something to bless my community. I don't know how many people in mine will actually see this painting. A few will catch it on Facebook or on my blog. Few will probably be impacted by the painting itself. But what's working within me are all of these thoughts and yearnings awakened over the weeks of Essentials Green (and Red and Blue). I feel pregnant. I feel like this woman contemplating her growing abdomen, amazed at the new life forming inside. And I think that I am God's creative project...after these thoughts have a chance to settle and work their way around my being, something is going to be birthed. I'm not sure exactly what, but I'm going to the next level. As in the birth of each of my children, new challenges arise with adding yet one more. And God has always equipped me for each new adventure. There will be something similar with this "birth." Challenging, definitely full of adventure, this spiritual formation has the potential to multiply, to replicate...to not just affect me but to go out and affect the world. Wow. This painting somehow captures that for me. The anticipation of good things to come. Yeah, God!

I'm not sure where things will go from here. Life is busy and without an externally imposed deadline and structure, many of the things I've enjoyed about taking this course will probably take a back seat for a while. It's just life. But I have so enjoyed these intense 15 weeks of diving deep into worship theology and look forward to the work God is doing in my life as a result.

"I Believe" Easter Presentation

For: The Institute of Contemporary and Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen's University, Essentials Course Online Worship Theology Course with Dan Wilt

This past Easter, 3 of my friends and I performed the piece I wrote for the Essentials Blue worship theology course titled "I Believe." A couple of months ago, I posted my rough version. Here's the tweaked version we recorded on Sunday.

I don't really know how it is that I was able to write this piece. Originally it was a response to the hardest discussion question I've ever had to answer in my life. It required digging deep and finding words to express the essence of what I believe. It caused me to groan under the weight of wordless thoughts and emotions as I wrestled to make them come into a tangible form. I struggled with the way it was written in comparison to the other classmates. This was supposed to just be the notes for a nice and neat 5 paragraph essay. But I could never get it into that form.

And I'm glad.

It morphed from my discussion question answer to my creative project to a presentation we did on Easter. My heart's desire is that in some way this humble offering would bring hope and healing to the despairing and diseased, plant life and truth into the hearts of all who see it, and bring glory to My God and King...this worship expression of one walking down the path of becoming more fully human, more fully glorifying to My Creator.

Essentials*Red Creative Project

For: The Institute of Contemporary and Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen's University, Essentials Red Online Worship Theology Course with Dan Wilt

When week 5 roles around, it's always a little stressful around the essentials hallway...I've known for 4 weeks that I would have a creative project due in week 5. Ideas linger in the back of my mind...but nothing really comes into focus that is "easy." And easy would really be best for me in order to fit it in with daily life. I take a deep breath and try to figure out what exactly to create that is unique and will draw someone closer to Jesus.

Bear with me as I am somewhat vulnerable here...I have this bent in me that pushes me to do something different than everyone else. Most write songs. Really amazing songs. But since I don't fancy myself that great of a musician/songwriter, I'd rather not put myself up with all of those who are truly incredible (and this course is full of them!) It feels safer, I guess, to do something different. Then there's no one to compare me to.

But when I assessed how much time I thought I could devote to the project, the idea I had originally decided to go with (a silk painting with a Communion theme) would take too long...too many steps involved that required lengths of uninterrupted time (very hard to come by at my house). As I fought the panic of the encroaching deadline, I opted for the "easier", less-complicated (read: fewer actual steps involved) song-writing idea because I couldn't think of anything else I could possibly do.

I opened up my Bible (or Biblegateway as the case may be) and read through the Scriptures normally read for Communion. This is the sacrament that has most captured my attention during Essentials Red and the one my original project would spring from. Almost immediately, a song began forming in my head that went with the image I had wanted to paint. The way it fell together was amazing and God-breathed for me.

The funny thing is that once I finished the song, the other project fell together as well. The one I thought would take too long. For some reason, He wanted both of them, but had to withold the one in order to get me to the song. He knows what it takes to get from us what He put in us.

It's a 2-for-1 :-)

You can listen to the song and access the chord chart by clicking here.

To view the silk painting, you can go here.

And I highly recommend checking out the other creative projects in Essentials Blue and Essentials Red. There aren't any yet for Essentials Green, but check back in about 5 weeks.

Leave comments! I'd love to hear what you think.

e*b Creative Project - Part 2

For: The Institute of Contemporary and Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen's University, Essentials Blue Online Worship Theology Course with Dan Wilt

Here's the final part of my creative project for spring 2009 Essentials Blue module. To view the pdf of the project script and notes, go here . I chose 3 people to perform this piece as a reflection of the Trinity. The first 2 stanzas as well as the last 3 have movement to symbolize the different aspects of God. We start off in a single file, representing the Oneness of God, and break off into the 3 parts to represent the invidivual persons of the Trinity. We open and end with similar sequences of movement with the intent of visually symbolizing the Trinity's unity as well as uniqueness.

This is a rough idea that I hope to refine over the next few weeks and possibly perform for Easter. With that in mind, I welcome input, creative suggestions, constructive criticism, and fan mail ;-) If/when we perform this in public, we would have it memorized. Thanks to my wonderful friends Erin (center stage) and Tami (left) who graciously met with me today so I could create a video.

e*b Creative Project - part 1

For: The Institute of Contemporary and Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen's University, Essentials Blue Online Worship Theology Course with Dan Wilt

This is the final week for Essentials Blue . It is actually overlapping with the beginning of Essentials Red. It's tough for me to keep up with the pace, but I'm going to give it a go. I'll continue to update this blog as I go along.

In this final week, we were assigned a creative project...something that would spring from things we learned or that impacted us in such a way so as to overflow in artistic expression.

I decided to take my answer to week 4's assignment and turn it into a dramatic reading of sorts.

My hope is that the words coupled with the visual aspects of interpretive movement at the beginning and the end will help to draw the listener/viewer into an encounter with God.

As it is an expression of me becoming more fully human, I pray that it's affect on the listener/viewer will be that he/she becomes more fully alive or, at the very least, has the desire to become more so.

Go here to view the written portion of my project. Check back soon for the video as the written won't make much sense without the visual.

To check out the other creative projects from Essentials Blue, go here