Author Archives: Derek H Miller

church, worship

When We Gather: Authenticity

Authenticity is a word that is thrown around a lot. It seems to be a buzz word for many these days when talking about church (or anything for that matter). I suppose it is rooted in a reaction to the thought that the American church experience was once or is currently inauthentic. An African American friend of mine even told me authentic is a word white guys use way too much! “Just be you, man. Don’t explain to me you’re trying to be you, like that’s such a big accomplishment!”

As a result of its frequent use, being authentic could convey different meaning or connotations. The definition we can work with, (which is adapted from Webster’s), is:

authenticity is the possessing of conformity to fact and origin to the extent that it produces trust, reliance, and/or belief.

This is somewhat of a mouthful so let’s break it down. Authenticity begins with lining up with what is both true and historic (fact and origin). The Christian faith lends itself to this, does it not? We have a rich history that we can stand upon and examine. The history is not always a bright one, but it is also not always dark. We have a very great heritage as we stand on the shoulders of giants. Now, whether or not they are good giants can be another issue, but we must admit that those giants shape the way we view history and the present.

Nevertheless, being authentic is not merely concerned with being rooted in truth. Something can be rooted and truth but then branch off into error and falsehood. Authenticity is more than having truth. This bears repeating. To be authentic goes beyond having all the answers, having a corner on truth, or having a perfect list of irrefutable propositions. Actually, I would begin to say that this can become antithetical to the very spirit of authenticity. Authenticity is conformity to truth to the extent that it produces trust and belief.

And perhaps this is where we can begin to lose our grip on authenticity. There is truth. There is history. And then there is the way in which we conform to/interact with these “propositions”. It is one thing to say, “We Christians believe in loving our neighbors and our enemies. It is a historic doctrine.” It is quite another to see how said Christian forgives and chooses not to seek vengeance (or fails). And then, it is even another issue to see how this person views his/her behavior.

This is the stuff of authenticity. I am formed by something. I oftentimes don’t act like I am formed by it. I usually fall short of the very things I espouse to be true.

So, if we consistently fail to live up to the things we claim to value, how can this produce trust in others? This idea is bound up in one term: love.

Love must be authentic. It is rooted in truth (God) and produces trust. How could you do anything but trust me if I would lay down my life for you. Would you rely on my if I loved you enough to bear your burdens? Wouldn’t you be more apt to believe that Jesus is real if I loved you like He loved me? This is how the Church can be and is the most beautiful thing in the world.

What keeps us from authenticity? What do we try to pass off as authenticity that is really something else? Any thoughts?

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church, Music, worship

When We Gather: Relationships

I am starting a new series of posts called “When We Gather” in an attempt to work through some of the main ideas/values/guiding principles that (in)form our gathered times of worship. I would love you thoughts in the comments section, as much of this is a work in progress!

Being that this is the first post in this series, there can be an implicit statement of priority that follows: i.e. the first topic or value is the most important. There is a sense in which this is true here. Though important is not necessarily the best term. Think of it more like the idea of an irreducible minimum. Since the focus will be on “gathered” worship, you cannot gather unless you are more than, well, just you! This brings in the concept of relationship.

In fact, I would argue relationship is so foundational, it must be addressed even before the Scriptures, because the Scriptures were written the context of the relationship between God and his people, compiled in community, read to gathered people, and recount songs that were sung by the people of God. This can be a serious oversight that we have when reading our nicely bound Bibles today: most of the “yous” are plural; addressed to a community, or multiple communities.

But “relationship” can still be a sort of abstract term. So I will prefer a different term: family.

I know “family” brings out many different feelings and thoughts. Family can be a filling place and a draining place. It is made up  of people who show love, care, and concern. It is also a place where trust has been broken, where people hurt each other, and where sometimes family members are just flat-out selfish. It is made up of those with different personalities, different goals, different beliefs, and different opinions. It’s a place  of benevolence and and a place of indifference.

But it is all bound by one thing: a family belongs to itself. Sometimes, that is the only thing that keeps you together.

Sounds like church to me.

So now, get this group of people together, along with those who don’t yet belong to the family (guests), and try to get them to sing together, pray together…worship…together.

That sounds like a crazy idea. Even a naive idea.

Or maybe…it is God’s idea.

Paul’s letter to the church family in Ephesus is replete with the idea of different people belonging to the same family:

“For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.” (Eph 2:14-18 NIV, emphasis mine)

So this new, blended, diverse family is bound by one thing: we have the same Father because of Jesus.

When we gather as this family, what should/could our worship look like? (not rhetorical! let me know what you think!)

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Advent, awakening, worship

Catching Up on Advent

“I am so, very behind.”

For many of us, this can become as constant of a mantra as, “I’m so busy,” or “I can’t believe it’s already Christmastime,” or “I have so much to do.”

When we say things over and over again, they tend to become true, even if they don’t start out that way.

Regardless, I feel behind. And this, in fact, is true as it relates to the Advent season. The second Sunday of Advent has come and gone, and I have yet to really enter into this time intentionally. Well, that is, until today. And I believe there is some purpose behind it.

Fr. Richard Rohr has written a wonderful little book called “Preparing for Christmas: Daily Meditations for Advent”. I highly recommend you get it on Amazon here. I decided to pick it up for the first time this morning and try to catch up on the readings. And I am glad I did, because it brought together my entire Sunday experience: all bound up in the word “Hope”.

It was this passage that got me.

‘Come, Lord Jesus,’ the Advent mantra, means that all of Christian history has to live out of a kind of deliberate emptiness, a kind of chosen non-fulfillment. Perfect fullness is always to come, and we do not need to demand it now…When we demand satisfaction of one another, when we demand any completion to history on our terms, when we demand that our anxiety or any dissatisfaction be taken away, saying as it were, “Why weren’t you this for me? Why didn’t life do that for me?” we are refusing to say, “Come, Lord Jesus.” We are refusing to hold out for the full picture that is always given by God. “Come, Lord Jesus” is a leap into the kind of freedom and surrender that is rightly called the virtue of hope. The theological virtue of hope is the patient and trustful willingness to live without closure, without resolution, and still be content and even happy because our Satisfaction is now at another level, and our Source is beyond ourselves…’Come, Lord Jesus’ is not a cry of desperation but an assured shout of cosmic hope.” (emphasis mine)

So, here’s to learning contentment in the midst our unresolved, fragmented, and often confusing lives.

What does it look like for you to hold to hope?

I encourage you to also read Jeremiah 33:14-16 and Luke 1:5-25.

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Baltimore, church, Movement, Music, worship

Why We Sing-Three Movements

During our worship conversation last night (which I will be posting thoughts from in the coming weeks), I mentioned a talk I did with our church back in 2010 (wow….has it been that long?) about the WHY behind singing in the church. Using the analogy of a piece of music with movements, I said that there are 3 movements (possibly more) than make up/inform the whole of church singing:
-Scripture
-Story (History)
-Theory/Philosophy

Download the audio here.

[audio https://www.dropbox.com/s/cdvund0oo42gu1i/Why%20We%20Sing%20Final.mp3]

What do you think? Why do we sing? What informs/guides your singing?

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Musings

My One Political Post of the Year (or hopefully decade)

I usually do not enter into the political discourse, and you will probably (hopefully) never see me endorse a candidate or wave a political banner here. We will never have a savior on Capitol Hill. (Derek Webb wrote a great song about this, by the way).

However, what does interest me more is the way discourse occurs concerning both politics and religion. As was said in a conversation with a  friend yesterday, it makes really smart people look really unintelligent, petty, and sometimes just plain mean. So I offer two things I have read that may offer some different ways of thinking, or maybe provoke some conversation. By viewing the way campaigns are run, debates are had and religion is “sold” by coercion, it may help us see into our own selves and how we participate in the very things we condemn.

The first is an extremely funny and sobering blog called The Guide to Dimwitted Discourse (warning: this is satire, so react accordingly; that is, laugh and then realize you are guilty!).

Second, there is a quote that I read from Thomas Jefferson, and at the risk of misquoting, I checked the source to make sure it was legit, as listed below. In the first line, you could easily substitute “religion” for “politics” (and, let’s be honest, many do already).

“Difference of opinion is advantageous in religion. The several sects perform the office of a Censor morum over each other. Is uniformity attainable? Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined, imprisoned: yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity. What has been the effect of coercion? To make one half the world fools, and the other half hypocrites. To support roguery and error all over the earth.”
–Notes, ed. Peden = Jefferson, Thomas. Notes on the State of Virginia. Edited by William Peden. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1955, 160.

So what do you think?

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Doubt, Music, worship

Doubt and Liturgy

“To believe is human, to doubt, divine.”

This is the tagline of one of my latest reads that a few of my friends are in the process of discussing. It is a work written by theologian, philosopher, and provocateur, Peter Rollins entitled Insurrection.

There is much to discuss within the pages, and I would be happy to buy a cup of coffee for anyone who would care to read and discuss it with me (not an empty offer, by the way!) But I will have to leave much of that discussion to such venues, or to my current “Breaking Bad Theology” night which is exactly what its double-entendred name describes (discussing a deconstructionist book [Rollins] and then watching Breaking Bad).

All that being said, I feel as though one of the places that Rollins seemed to intrigue me the most were his statements concerning the place of doubt in Christian worship or liturgy.

He uses Jesus’ statement on the cross as a starting point, as recorded in both the Gospels of Matthew and Mark: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

For Rollins, this is a witness of Jesus expressing what he describes as an existential or experiential atheism, calling it “the deepest, most radical form of divine loss” (p. 21).

There is much to unpack here (and he does), but in essence, he argues that for us to fully participate in the death of Jesus, we also must go through Crucifixion; a process of having all comfort and structure stripped away until there is nothing left.

And to much of this, I would agree. Now here is where it can get a little scary for us. Many of us would say “yes and amen” to the fact that doubt is real and suffering is real and that many of us have felt that God isn’t there.

We would say “yes and amen” to this fact. But would we so regularly agree with actually experiencing it? That is, would we eagerly desire to engage in such a deep sense of loss or participate in an experience of disillusionment?

This is the part that has given me pause for reflection. As one who seeks to craft an environment where the realities of our faith can be experienced and shape us, the large absence of doubt in our current liturgies concerns me (and I say “our” in the sense of my church, not in universal sense, as I am in no place to speak for others).
Am I offering a sort of holy security blanket in order to shield people from the stark realities that they need to experience, as Christ did? Do we not have opportunities to fully feel the loss because we are so eager to get to the phrase “but God” or speak of resurrection?

What if we were to sing songs that express doubt, that recount anger toward God, or that question his very existence or presence? How would that be received? And better yet, how could it be truly good for us? We do identify with break-up songs a lot, after all…and even sing them! And this can be a sort of catharsis. It is one thing to say that loss happens, and it quite another to declare, in the loudest voice, that loss has happened to me.

But we rarely refuse to sing such things because we say we “know better” than what we are singing. We are quick to say “Yes it feels this way, but Jesus is alive.” “All things work together for good.” “Consider it joy when you face trials” (this last one being one of my least favorite, poorly-quoted phrases that others say to suffering people–one I heard way too often while I was enduring some great losses of my own).

Jesus knew he would be alive again, didn’t he? He said many times that he would be raised. But that fact did not seem to prevent him from being grieved and overwhelmed with sorrow “even to the point of death” (Mark 14) and then proclaiming his felt absence of God. This is not to mention that he still had (has?) scars to prove it. Jesus even directs Doubting Thomas to touch (experience) Jesus’ scars as proof of the fact of his resurrection. Could it be that we need to become more acquainted with the “scars” of Jesus?

What do you think? Should there be room for doubt in corporate worship times? If so, how?

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Musings

City Uprising Set-lists

What an incredible week we had with City Uprising! It was such a joy to share in worshiping with such a servant-hearted group of volunteers and my church family.

It took me awhile to recover! So here is a list of all the songs we did this past week. A very special thank you to my Gallery band who took a ton of time off to help lead during these times. I filled up almost every night for a week! (pray they don’t quit on me!)

Sunday Gathering

God’s Children Aaron Niequist
You can get this song from http://www.aaronniequist.com or http://www.anewliturgy.com. Buy all of Aaron’s music! 

Doxology Traditional

Mighty to Save Hillsong

Did You Feel the Mountains Tremble? Martin Smith/Deliriou5?

10,ooo Reasons (Bless the Lord) Redman

Savior King Hillsong

Monday Gathering

Those Who Trust 100 Portraits/Waterdeep

I Am a Seed Crowder
This is from David Crowder Band’s last album “Requiem”. You should buy it! 

It is Well With My Soul Spafford

One Thing Remains Black, Johnson, & Riddle

All the Poor and Powerless All Sons and Daughters
I have fallen in love with this group from Nashville. They just recently released their full-length album “Season One”. You can find it on iTunes. 

Everlasting God Tomlin

Wednesday Gathering

They’ll Know We Are Christians by Our Love Scholtes

Bend My Knee Niequist

Be Thou My Vision Traditional

Changed Niequist 

Jesus Paid it All Grape & Hall

God of This City Bleakley, Boyd,  Aaron,  Comfort, Jordan,  Kernaghan, and McCann

One Thing Remains Black, Johnson, & Riddle

Feel free to share any thoughts or reflections in the comments section!

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awakening, church, city, Musings, Suffering

Suffering | Two Quotes

I’ve had some conversations with friends about the concept of suffering. This is a great mental exercise until you actually have to go through it, and then…well…it’s pretty terrible.
I would love your thoughts or experiences on this issue as it relates to the following quotes:
Two quotes:
The first is from a very conservative professor that I had. He said some pretty quotable stuff (i.e. at the end of class, he said the following: “‎If God spares the United States of America, he will have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah. Be safe.”)–but that’s not the quote I want to focus on…it’s this:
“If you have never shaken your fist at the sky, do not covet the experience; it will come. Never look into the eyes of someone suffering and say “God has a reason” or “Someday you will understand”. Both are lies. It is a grave invitation to offer comfort that is not true. The Lord comforts those who are in pain, but he does not do it through deception. The answer to human suffering is that there are no answers. We are not going to understand. The result of living in a fallen world where everyone dies.”
And the second:
“The truth that many people never understand, until it is too late, is that the more you try to avoid suffering the more you suffer because smaller and more insignificant things begin to torture you in proportion to your fear of being hurt.”
— Thomas Merton
Thoughts?
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Baltimore, church, city, gospel, Movement, Musings

My Letter to the Church in Baltimore

As some of you may know, I was ordained into gospel ministry by my church this past weekend. It was one of the most wonderful experiences of my life! As a part of the questioning time, one of the pastors on my panel asked me this question: “If you were to write a letter to the church in Baltimore, like Paul did, what would you say?”

I decided to actually write a letter. I pray it encapsulates much of what I feel as I am stepping into this new season of life.

Feel free to respond in any way in the comments section below.

Derek;
A grateful servant of our Lord Jesus Christ
and a fellow laborer in the vineyard of our Master,

To the saints in the city of Baltimore;
my fellow workers in the harvest of our Lord,
Those he has purchased with His very own self,
Those who he has adopted into His family,
Those who serve the Body of Christ and the city,
Those who are endeavoring to see the reign of our King extend over our city and to the ends of the earth;

Greetings.

I thank God that I am counted as among you, that I get to be named along with you as the Church in Baltimore; a planting of our God in the city, for the city. Ever since my time in coming here, I am continually amazed by the work that God is doing here. I have had the joy of learning so much from many of you who have been working faithfully for our God in our city for years upon years. I know many of you have been praying for God to do a special work in our neighborhoods, on our streets, in the hearts of our neighbors. I want to rejoice with all of you, whether we be sowers or reapers, that we can rejoice together that the time for the harvest is now!

And it is happening. God is moving. The questions I would pose to all of us (myself included) would be:

Are we awake? Do we see? Are we ready?

Are we awake?

We see groups of people everyday; in our churches, neighborhoods, communities, and jobs. As we live and work and play in the city, sometimes these crowds stay just that: crowds of people with no personal identity. I would encourage us to see them differently.

The disciples seem to really reflect our attitudes when it comes to crowds of people. They wanted Jesus to send them away. They saw overwhelming needs, mouths to be fed, wounds to be healed, and maybe even moods to appease so that they don’t get too rowdy! You may even find your prayers being something like this: “Jesus, these people need much and demand much and, sometimes, frustrate and frighten me. I feel overwhelmed. The ground is hard.”

But Jesus response to seeing the same people we see was markedly different. He had compassion. He saw what was lacking. They needed people to lead them and care for them.

So Jesus turned to the disciples and said, “It’s time for a harvest. Pray that God sends more people because there is a lot of work to do.”

Do we see? 

A harvest. Where we see barren land, hard ground, and no growth, Jesus sees an opportunity to harvest. Could it be that we are not seeing our city the way Jesus does?

Today, before writing this, I took my morning bike ride through the city. This is quickly becoming a wonder-filled experience for me; a sweet time to reflect, to pray, and, hopefully, to get in shape! Today, it was the same route, the same pot-holes that never get filled, the same rows of abandoned homes, the same neighborhoods that seem to change from one to the next in the blink of an eye, the same groups of day-laborers by the 7-11, the young professionals on their way to work, the panhandlers trying to find daily bread, and the same crazy drivers that almost run me off the road (bless their hearts)! Today’s ride was the same, but, in a moment became totally different.

I saw the city with a fresh perspective. (There is something to Jesus healing so many blind people.) In reflecting on this passage from Matthew 9, I was awakened to the fact that Jesus sees this city as ripe for harvest. The issue is not the ground. The issue is not the seed. The issue is not the growth.

He asks us to pray for workers.

My desire with my ordination this weekend is to say that I am joining your ranks as a worker in the field of Baltimore and as a shepherd of the shepherd-less.

But, we all know that the work is not limited to the “professionals”, those who have been called into gospel ministry by profession, calling, or giftedness. We all are ministers in the Body of Christ. We are all co-laborers.

So the call remains: pray that God will send workers. And from where do these workers come?

Are we ready?

That is the final (but most central) thing I would admonish us to do: make disciples and teach them to work!

As a Church, we work on many things. We host incredible events to meet tangible needs in our communities, we fix up schools and parks, we show those infected of/affected by HIV that they are loved and valuable, we speak prophetically to our leaders in the city to call them to God’s way, we mentor and love our children, we fight against sex-slavery, and we seek to proclaim the reality that Jesus is Lord.

And these are all wonderful, God-honoring, Kingdom-oriented things that we should continue in. Indeed, God has prepared them for us that we should walk in them.

But let us not forget the core of our mission: we must make disciples. If we do not, we will fail in our mission as a Church, fail our King as it relates to our obedience, and there will be no one left to carry on the works God has for us when we are gone.

Our city needs committed disciples of Jesus who make committed disciples of Jesus.

I know I have much room to grow and learn as it relates to this. My prayer for us is that we never lose sight of the centrality of Christ’s call on us and that we may always partner together for the furtherance of this mission. I look forward to gleaning wisdom from you all in this area.

Are we ready?

Are we ready for the messy, difficult task of discipling? Are we positioning ourselves for life-to-life interactions? Who have we called to follow us? More importantly, are we proving ourselves, by God’s grace as people worth following?

These are all questions that I face each day, praying that God allows me to both answer them and be the answer to them!

May God’s will be done in Baltimore as it is in heaven.

The grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you, so that His Greatness may be known in our city and the world!

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Musings

Sunday Setlist: 4/22/12

(Other people do this here.)

It was great to have Ellis back teaching us again from Mark 9 concerning Jesus healing of the “unbelieving man’s” son . You can listen to the podcast here (it’s usually up on Tuesdays). 

Harbor East 10am Gathering

Mighty to Save Fielding/Hillsong

Deliver Me Crowder

This was a song that allowed us to dwell on how God saves us from whatever we are facing. We read parts of Psalm 69 as a way to prepare us to sing this well. It was very meaningful for me, personally.

Great is Thy Faithfulness Chisolm/Traditional

Came to My Rescue Hillsong
Lauren did a wonderful job leading on this one!

Saviour King Hillsong
I still get crazy excited when we sing the words “Let now your church, shine as the Bride, that you saw in your heart as you offered up your life”.

Help My Unbelief Newton/Wells
I happened upon this song as recorded by Red Mountain Church and thought that it fit so well with this week’s passage. Also, the fact that John Newton, a former slave trader, wrote this as he struggled through his ongoing journey of faith seemed very applicable to us all.

Highlandtown 5pm Gathering
This was my first Sunday back leading here in almost a month! I enjoyed being able to sing with Allison and Colter and do some music in Spanish again!

Sing Sing Sing Tomlin
There is something about singing this with our congregation and us all clapping together that I just love!!

Healer Guglielmucci

Majesty Smith

Feel free to share any thoughts or reflections in the comments section!

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