2010 Worship Books and More
The blog has been a bit quite in recent days, and will remain so as — if the snow doesn’t foul things up too much — I will on taking vacation next week. I do wonder, though, what books you might recommend for the new year.
Specifically, I’m leading a workshop in February entitled, “Worship and Welcomes the Spiritually Hungry.” And the organizers of the event and looking for books that include good thoughts on welcoming worship, how to make your space and service hospitable, how to be open to those unchurched, that sort of thing. So, what books should we be sure to have available at the bookstore?
And, while we’re at it, what books would you recommend in general? What was your fav book of 2009?
Christmas Eve Sermon: “Christmas Boots”
Adam J. Copeland
December 24, 2009
Adams Mountain Lutheran Church
Christmas Boots
Isaiah 9:2-7
Luke 2:1-20
Tonight, thousands of miles away from us here, pilgrims having gathered in Bethlehem at the Church of the Nativity. There they worship God at the site traditionally marking Jesus birth. Some will have traveled many miles to attend a Christmas Eve service at the ancient church. Some Palestinian Christian will just have walked a few blocks from their houses.
Parts of that church in Bethlehem date back to the 4th century, so it’s fascinating to think of the variety of Christmas Eve services celebrated within its walls over the years. From monks to knights, peasants to kings, the church has seen it all.
If you were there tonight, though, and were feeling a little playful I’d suggest playing a game. It’s called, “Spot the American.” My friends and I played it sometimes when I was studying abroad in college. To play you just sit back in a tourist hot spot and try to pick out the Americans. No listing to accents, that’s cheating. You have to do it by sight. After a few trips, it’s actually pretty easy.
You can almost always spot Americans tourists in one of three ways. One, they have their money or passport around their neck on a cord. Have you seen that type of travel wallet? Americans love them, nobody else seems to carry their money so close to their hearts. Another way to spot Americans while traveling is by looking for fanny packs. Yes, we invented the fanny pack so we claim it near and far. Finally, the easiest way of all to spot Americans while traveling is by their shoes, their footwear. I don’t know what it is about the American shoe manufacturing business, or Americans’ feet, but our shoes stand out. There’s the white sneaker that’s almost uniquely American, the black Reebok which makes many trips abroad, and the sensible brown travel shoe. I’m telling you, after a little practice you can spot American footwear a mile away. If you were playing “Spot the American” at the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem tonight, you’d have no problem at all if you focused on the feet.
In that prophetic passage from Isaiah 9 tonight, we hear:
The people who have walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness–on them light has shined…For all the boots of the tramping warriors and all the garments rolled in blood shall be burned as fuel for the fire.
Perhaps this passage strikes us even more pointedly this year as 30,000 more troops head to Afghanistan. Isaiah writes that in the day of the Lord all the boots of the tramping warriors will be burned as fuel for the fire.
A few years ago now, Jim Webb ran for the U.S. Senate in Virginia. As a Democrat, he needed to appear especially strong on national security issues, especially considering he was running in the state home to so many who work at the Pentagon. For these political reasons, or just because of where his heart was, Jim Webb wore some very unusual footwear while he campaigned. Jim’s son was just back from a tour of duty in Iraq, and was returning soon. Jim wore his son’s combat boots every day of that campaign, whether now-Senator Webb was wearing jeans or a suit and tie, those combat boots made a statement that he supported his son, and he supported the troops.
Isaiah writes of a time when combat boots are no longer needed, for the enemy has been vanquished. Their boots are thrown into the fire and the people can rejoice for a child has been given to them called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Isaiah knew all those names, but he didn’t call him Jesus. Not until a few hundred years later did the world welcome God incarnate by that name. And even then, his birth was not what we might have expected, not the glorious loud triumphal birth of a king, not at all. … Continue Reading
We three rings of Google are, bearing phones news travels a far
Forgive some jumping from topic to topic in this post, but it’s how my mind is working at the moment. It starts with the Google Phone, moves to Nicolas Kristof, and ends with Christmas. Here goes nothing.
Ok, so if you’ve seen the tech blogs, no scratch that, if you’ve seen any news lately you may have seen a story on the new Google phone. The crazy thing about this story is that no phone has been publicly launched. There’s no press releases or pretty pictures. Exactly the opposite, in fact. Google has given a phone to some of its employees to test out, and now there’s leaks all over the internet. The phone apparently has a name “Nexus One” and the hardware is manufactured by HTC. But then there’s all this speculation about whether it will be sold unlocked, and if so how much. And is Google getting into a business other than software. Yadda. Yadda. Who knows? I’ve seen the story on tech blogs, heard it on NPR, and read about it on Slate. I didn’t go looking for it, it just hit me three times in 24 hours. I’ll note again: Google hasn’t paid a dime for this advertising. All speculation.
Cut to NY Times columnist Nicholas Kristof. I heard a fascinating interview with him on NRP’s “On the Media” show in which Kristof talks about how he, as an advocacy journalist, frames issues. He does so differently than he used to after researching some surprising recent studies. Studies show that people are more moved and more likely to help one person in need than they are to respond to many people in need. In fact, we are much more likely to give money to an organization when we hear a plea to help one specific starving child, than we are to give if we hear this one child has a starving sibling as well. Kristof talks about how this makes his job as an advocacy journalist quite difficult, since he’s both trying to educate people about context and the scope of issues AND get them to do something about it. Kristof’s interview gets me thinking about PR and how bad most of us are at it.
Ok, now to Christmas. I wonder how, if at all, these two stories relate to the Christmas story. Here’s the thing. Christmas is sort of a big deal for Christians, it’s sort of about, um, God taking on flesh and becoming human and showing us the way to live only to die for just that. Without Christ, there’d be no Christians, no Christmas, no Santa.
But, unless I’m missing something, the Google phone is getting a helluva lot more news cycle time this week than Christmas and its celebration. Yeah, I know a google phone is pretty cool — I’d love to snag one — but it’s a phone. God coming in the flesh through the selflessness of a teenage peasant girl is even a bit more spiffy than an unlocked handset with Android software. But we Christians can’t seem to get the word out right. It’s not newsworthy. It’s not catchy. It’s not as revolutionary as a new phone. Or at least, that’s what our lives seem to communicate, and that’s what the press seems to cover (or not).
Sure, you can say it’s not all about news coverage time, the gospel isn’t about getting on TV or twitter. Sure. But all this makes me wonder, what’s going to make a bigger splash in the next few weeks: Google or the Christian church?
Sermon: "What in the World?" Luke 1:39-55
Adam J. Copeland
FPC Hallock
December 13, 2009
Advent III
What in the World?
Luke 1:39-55
What in the world is God thinking? God must be messing with us. Did you hear today’s reading? Utterly unbelievable. I mean, had Luke gone off his rocker? What in the world is God thinking?
Mary? God chose Mary to bear a son. What in the world is God thinking? Mary was a teenager — maybe 15 or 16. Mary wasn’t rich. Mary was dating, but not even married. Was God just asking for a scandal?
What an absurd notion — that God would choose a teenager to bear God’s son. What a crazy idea — that God would become human through the weak flesh of an unwed mother. What a ridiculous proposition — that the savior of the world would be cared for by a peasant.
What in the world was God thinking? There surely were better ways, right? Come as an adult and skip over those nasty cloth diapers and terrible twos — that sounds good. Or if God must be born as one of us, at least choose a respectable family. Someone married, with means; a family that has shown good parenting skills and is keeping up with the Joneses. Couldn’t God have found someone a bit more qualified than Mary? What in the world is God thinking? … Continue Reading
ThePresbyterianLeader.com
Elder and Deacon training — a requirement of the Book of Order, but also just a darn good thing to do, and to do well. In my context, Elders and Deacons are elected at the end of November and installed in early January. This doesn’t leave much time for training, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a good idea.
So where does a pastor turn to plan Elder and Deacon training? What resources are available for a rookie pastor? Well, I looked no further than ThePresbyterianLeader.com (Full disclosure: they gave me a deal on the resources and I’m reviewing them on the blog.)
ThePresbyterianLeader.com is a newish online resource for Presbyterians. It’s similar to The Thoughtful Christian in that you can download pdf versions of studies, but it’s more too. There’s a worship planning resource, essays on doctrines and beliefs, and studies. I’ll probably check things out again this spring when we take on something like a Presbyterian 101 event series at the church. Until then, though, we might as well get these Deacons and Elders trained right.
So I’ll post again once I’ve worked with the studies. It’s a three session study for Elders and one session for Deacons. A quick read looks like they might just fit the bill just swell. Check out the site, and let me know how it has suited you.
Sermon: Luke 3:1-6, "Prepare the Way"
Adam J. Copeland
First Pres Hallock, Minn
Dec 6, 2009
Prepare the Way
Luke 3:1-6, Malachi 3:1-4
In Northfield, today, south of the cities, hundreds of singers and orchestra members are preparing the annual Christmas Festival. Though it’s been five years since I’ve sung with them, my heart is still with the St. Olaf students who have spent so many hours preparing for a successful weekend the festival. Thousands come to Northfield for the performances, and even more listen on the radio or watch on TV. (You can catch this afternoon’s performance at 3:30 on Classical MPR stations.)
It’d take a PhD in statistics to figure out how many collective hours are spent prepping for the concerts. Five choirs of around one hundred people each memorize the words to a couple dozen songs and hymns. The St. Olaf Choir rehearses every day for and hour and a half. Orchestra players learn their parts on their own before playing with the group. Singers come back three days early from Thanksgiving break for rehearsals. And by the time of the concert, all is prepared. The stage is set with beautiful props, every choir member knows how to process and recess into the hall. If it’s a TV recording year, all is choreographed with the video cameras as well. After months of preparation the concerts go always manage to go off without a hitch, and then, a few short weeks later, a committee meets to begin preparing the theme for the next year’s festival.
Today, a few hundred miles north, Malachi and Luke speak of another sort of preparation. Malachi writes, “See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me…the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, indeed, he is coming.”
Malachi anticipates the messenger, but Luke names him clearly. He’s called “John the Baptist” and he’s sent to prepare the way of the Lord.
The writers of Mark and Matthew talk about John the Baptist coming from the wilderness strangely dressed and eating locusts and wild honey. But Luke doesn’t say much about that. Instead, Luke chooses to quote a longer passage from Isaiah after introducing John the Baptist:
Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight.
Every valley shall be filled,
and every mountain and hill shall be made low…
Early December is the season of many preparations — buying presents, decorating trees. Julie and David, Jan and Dave, have had a few weeks of special preparation that is now just over, getting their houses ready for a successful Tour of Homes. Advent is about preparation too, but a different sort than that of buying stocking stuffers and pie ingredients. John the Baptist calls us to prepare for a new sort of world order, one in which Jesus and love, not consumerism and self-interest, rules forever. … Continue Reading
"In the Bleak Midwinter," Old Hat or Cutting-Edge?
Let me indulge in some quick Presbyterian polity to get at some deep worship conundrums.
I’ve always been intrigued that the Presbytery Book of Order states that the minister as pastor has some responsibilities “not subject to the authority of the session” including choosing “the music to be sung in worship” (W-1.4005). And then, on the next page, the Book or Order states that hymnals should be chosen by the session with the concurrence of the pastor (W-1.4006).
I bet there’s been a congregation or two whose session selected a hymnal just to get a pastor’s goat, and the pastor then consistently chose hymns from another hymnal to get them back! That’s all to say: choosing hymns is a tricky business.
I’m a big hymn guy and enjoy singing in worship and leading people in congregational song. It’s a joy to choose music for our congregation to sing. But, even after almost several months into my call, it’s not getting any easier. In fact, it’s one of the most difficult things I do all week.
Take, for example, the hymn “In the Bleak Midwinter” by Christina Rossetti c. 1872. I happen to know that about 2/3rds of PC(USA) congregations sang the hymn last year. More than 80% of respondents to a survey soon to be released by the Presbyterian Committee on Congregational Song said the hymn should be included in the next Presbyterian hymnal. The hymn appears in eight hymnals published in the last thirty years and twenty-two hymnals published prior.
Herbert Brokering calls the hymn a “well-known and well-loved Advent hymn” in his Advent meditation book called, of all things, “In the Bleak Midwinter.” I’ve had the hymn memorized for almost half my life now, as it closed every high school chorus concert. Later, as a singer in the St. Olaf Choir, we took an an anthem arrangement on tour all over the U.S.
All that said, truth be told, I don’t really care for the hymn. It’s a bit sentimental, too romantic for my taste. That’s not to say it’s not a classic and deserves to continue its long run as a Christmas favorite, it’s just not a hymn I really look forward to singing.
So, at a worship committee meeting last week I popped the question. “What are you favorite Christmas hymns?” “We love them all” was the consensus answer. Fair enough. It’s hard to choose. But when I asked about “In the Bleak Midwinter,” I was met with stares. I played a recording on my laptop. Nobody knew the hymn.
It’s totally fine with me not to sing the hymn this Christmas season in Hallock, but the experience highlights how difficult it is for a pastor to choose hymns for a congregation to sing without knowing everyone’s personal hymn-singing experience. We generally sing three hymns a service, and I never put more than one new hymn in a service. So I’ll often mix in two older texts from the 1990 Presbyterian Hymnal, then have a newer piece as a bulletin insert from a recent worship resource. But, other than the absolute classics, it’s very hard to say if the older hymns are actually well-known in my context. Of course, I check with folks and ask around, that’s the only way to do it, but it ain’t easy. Assumptions cannot be made.
I suppose we could go through every bulletin of the last ten years an write down what hymns have been sung, but I rather listen to nails on a chalk board all day. Since last year, thank goodness, we’ve been recording each time a hymn is sung in a master hymnal so future worship leaders will have idea of what’s been sung when. I’m more than happy to continue the practice.
When beginning my first call I didn’t think choosing hymns would be so difficult. It’s a joy, but it also highlights how difficult it is to get to know a congregation. I’m considering some sort of hymn survey in the new year. I’d love to hear your thoughts. How does your congregation chose its worship music? Do you love “In the Bleak Midwinter”? What’s the best way to keep records of what’s been sung when?
image by Hanna Zabielska
Connect Online
