Author Archives: Derek H Miller

Musings

My new ride

A new adventure began for me yesterday! Drew and Luke and I went up to Joe’s Bike Shop where, after much research and penny-pinching, I was able to purchase my new Scott Speedster s40! And I LOVE it!

So begins a new endeavor for me: cycling.

My new love; "Peggy"-short for Pegasus

I’ve been dabbling in it for the better part of a year and taking spin classes at the gym and now I feel like I am ready to take the plunge. So the question arises: what do I do now?

I am tempted to go buy a bunch of riding swag and get totally into it. And I will probably buy some necessities (like shorts with some added “protection”)

I am going to try to ride as much as possible and get used to this. My goal is to do the Pecometh Century in September.

Anyone care to ride with me sometime? Any tips for this “newbie”?

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Baltimore, church, city, Movement, Music, Sunday Setlist, worship

He is Risen, Indeed! An Easter 2012 Recap

What an incredible weekend we had! As I write this, I am amazed at how many parts of your body can be sore at once, yet praising God that I still have a voice! What a joy it was to be able to join in with my church family and friends (and their family and friends) and celebrate the good news that Jesus is Messiah and King and has defeated death!

We began our gathering with Angus Dei as our way of unburying the alleluias. This brought our Lenten journey full circle as we had removed the word “alleluia” from out weekend liturgies since Ash Wednesday in preparation for Easter. And it showed. What our church deposited then by burying, they dug up with interest and really lifted their voices, even when we sang in Spanish!

We then sang two hymns that I love. the first, All Creatures of our God and King, was originally penned by Saint Augustine and then arranged more recently by David Crowder. We then transitioned into the song In Christ Alone. To be honest, it is difficult to get through this song without getting choked up. The Gettys really know how to compact a rich Christology into 4 verses. This line gets me every time : No guilt in life, no fear in death, this is the power of Christ in me / From life’s first cry to final breath, Jesus commands my destiny / no pow’r of hell, no scheme of man, can ever pluck me from his hand.

Ellis taught on Mark 8:31-9:1 in a teaching he entitled Antonym. He did a masterful job displaying how much we think that Jesus is the opposite of what he really is (i.e. Peter’s rebuke).

We then responded with more singing. A song that has become a sort of anthem for our church is All the Poor and Powerless. This song is by one of my new favorite worship artists, All Sons and Daughters. If you don’t have their latest full album, buy it. And if you do the iTunes thing, buy the LP on iTunes because it comes with chord charts and videos.

Then keeping with the ‘alleluia” theme, we did a rewritten version of Jef Buckley’s Hallelujah called Another Halllelujah by Lincoln Brewster. I LOVED singing this one with all our voices! We then ended our set with Gungor’s This is Not the End. This is such an epic sounding song and I have to give strong kudos to the band for working through the difficulties of this song (it changes time signature in the middle of the song and then goes back again!)

Thanks again to my bandmates and all our volunteers who made yesterday possible. It is an honor to serve with you all!

Grace and Peace be with you…

-D

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Musings

Sunday Set-list (sorta): 4/1/12

Hey guys,

I haven’t been able to sit down and write the sets out from this past weekend (due to life happening such as engagement and Easter right around the corner!), but here are the links to our Planning Center order of worship plans:

10am

5pm

Feel free to comment if you would like more info.

And, stay tuned for an Easter recap sometime next week.

He Is Risen!

-D

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Music, Musings, Sunday Setlist

Sunday Set-list: 3/25/12

(Other people do this here.)

It was great to have Ellis back teaching us again from Mark 8 concerning the Pharisee’s response to Jesus . You can listen to the podcast here (it’s usually up on Tuesdays). 

Harbor East 10am Gathering

All Who Are Thirsty Brown/Robertson
This is a song based on Psalm 42. We did a meditation on this song, asking our King Jesus to come and fill in our depths with the deep that is him.

I Will Not Forget You Pasley

All We Need Hall

How Great is Our God/How Great Thou Art Tomlin
This song gives me chills every time I hear a group of people sing it. It never fails

Open the Eyes of My Heart Baloche

Highlandtown 5pm Gathering
Jon, Kate, Colter, and Jared did a wonderful job leading us Sunday evening! It was awesome to see how others can use their gifts to serve in our body! I will let them provide their own commentary, but I loved being able to sing with everyone!

Cannot Keep You Gungor

Be Thou My Vision Traditional

From the Inside Out Houston

Come Thou Fount Traditional
I loved the arrangement of this song. The band pulled off a noticeable homage to the Sufjan Stevens version of this song from one of his Christmas albums. Beautiful and wonderful, especially with voices added! Sadly, no banjo…if you play one, let me know!!

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

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Baltimore, church, Music, Musings, Sunday Setlist

Sunday Set-list: 3/18/12

(Other people do this here.)

What an incredible weekend we had. We LOVED having Ed and Lorna Dobson with us this weekend. Ed taught about Jesus feeding of the four thousand in Mark 8. You can listen to the podcast here (it’s usually up on Tuesdays). 

Harbor East 10am Gathering

Already Here Niequist
Aaron Niequist, a worship leader at Willow Creek in Illinois, wrote this song. I love the concept behind it. So often we pray things like, “God, show your face,” or “We want you to come here and be with us,” rather than confessing that He is here. We rarely are awake to His presence. But He is always around us.

Oh, Great God Give Us Rest Crowder
We used this song as a form of Daily Window meditation, recognizing that God is the source of our rest and the giver of all the things we need.

All My Fountains Tomlin
Chris talks a lot about how this song came about here.

Let it Rain Farren
It was fun to weave together the ideas of God’s blessing as water. We recognize that all we have comes from him, and that he is the one who controls how blessings fall.

‘Til I See You Houston
My favorite part of Sunday was Ed answering a question by simply stating “I don’t have a good answer for that question.” He went on to say that there are some things about the Scriptures that are troubling at times, and he plans on asking God on the other side. But he still believes the Bible and he still trusts. There is a line in the song that says “‘Til I see you face to face, and grace amazing takes me home, I’ll trust in You.” That can be hard to do. But in light of all that we have received from him, it really shouldn’t be.

Highlandtown 5pm Gathering
(we did a similar set with a few changes…)

Everlasting God Tomlin

We Believe Original
I think I wrote this song over 2 years ago! We were learning about how Jesus made all of these claims to be God and meet our needs. It seemed right, at that time, to call Jesus the “pantry” of bread as we are just one beggar showing another beggar the way.

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

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Musings

Sarcasm is “Scar-casm”: When jokes can be funny but bad.

Donald Miller (a writer with whom I would love to lie and convince you that we are somehow related) has written an excellent blog on sarcasm here. And it got me thinking about how I use sarcasm. I would encourage you to read it and even take him up on the challenge he offers. It got me thinking more about how I use humor as a mask and a tool to keep people at arm’s-length.

This past weekend, Ed Dobson and his wife, Lorna, came to visit with our church for the second time and preach at our gatherings. It was wonderful. Kara and I even got spend some time taking them out for lunch. They are a wonderful, God-loving couple with warm hearts (and a great sense of humor!). If you don’t know his story, you can see him tell it here. They shared much of their lives with us, and gave us many gifts of wisdom. However, the one piece of advice that has never left me is something he told our church staff last time he was here.

“Be careful about your sarcasm. It can be one of the most damaging things to relationships.”

I remember hearing that and being at first convicted and then dismissing. I thought, “He doesn’t understand OUR type of sarcasm and joking. It’s the funny kind and everyone likes it.”

But there is another level to it. Sarcasm can be hurtful to others, but it can also be hurtful to the relationship itself. It can cause a lack of depth, and level of distrust, and even encourage one-upmanship and competition. I am now seeing it in my relationships. I desire to be the funny guy so badly sometimes that I can step on others or even stunt relationships to get there.

So even when my jokes are funny (rare occasion as it may be), they can also be bad. Bad for you and bad for me.

What do you think? Have you experienced pain because of sarcasm? Do you hide behind humor?

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awakening, Musings

Why I Had to Kill Netflix

I had to kill Netflix.

Why?

2 words: Battlestar Galactica.

Now, before you go being all anti-sci-fi judgy on me, hear me out.

Battlestar Galactica is one of the best sci-fi series I have ever seen. And I have seen a lot. It has a great social-commentary subtext to it that I really enjoyed. And I kept wanting to see more episodes.

And that’s the problem. It sucked me in. And rather than me having a Lost-like addiction which went on for years, I was able to watch the entire catalog of the Battlestar re-boot in a matter of weeks. Which meant there were some days that it was all I did (seriously, all I did). It was like this episode of Portlandia. (this is hauntingly close!)

And it was killing me. Because I was totally wasting my time. And it wasn’t filling at all.

Because I have learned something about what does fill me: creating. I feel most alive and most filled when I am making something: writing, making music, planning something…it fills me up.

So all the time that I should have been using to create, to write, to use my gifts…I was using to find out who was a cylon-robot.

Now, I sometimes feel fullness when I am appreciating what is created. But..not as much. Which is why I am not compelled to tell all of you to do the same thing I did with Netflix (and other reasons, like..I’m not your dad). My personality is different. Some of you can watch an episode of Downtown Abbey and not have to watch the entire season. I can’t.

So, I pray that you are able to find those things that fill you and stay away from things that you think will, but won’t at all.

Proverbs 14:12 “There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death.” 

Sometimes you have to kill something before it kills you.

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Musings

Sunday Set-list: 3/4/12

(Other people do this here.)

I just want to pause and say, I LOVE having the role of planning and leading our church in worship. It was such a joy this weekend! And also a shout-out to two of my friends. Jody, one of our drummers got crazy sick this weekend and we really missed him! But, my friend Nate did a great job jumping in last minute to help out! Thanks, Nate and feel better, Jody!

Harbor East 10am Gathering

God’s Children Niequist
Aaron Niequist, a worship leader at Willow Creek in Illinois, has embarked on a project called A New Liturgy, in which he seeks to create sacred space through these 25-minute recorded, worship experiences. This song is on the No. 1 Liturgy, God is Love. It shifted my perspective the other day as I was walking and listening. I recognized God in face of every person I passed. And I wanted to love them with the same love that God has for them.

End of the Story Niequist
We used this song as a form of Daily Window meditation, while combining it with some quotes from N.T. Wright. You can find the song here. And the quoted text is below.

“…[W]herever Jesus went he met an endless supply of people whose lives had gone badly wrong. Sick people, sad people, people in doubt, people in despair, people covering up their uncertainties with arrogant bluster, people using religion as a screen against harsh reality.

And though Jesus healed many of them, it wasn’t like waving a magic wand. He shared the pain. He was deeply grieved at the sight of a leper and the thought of all that the man had gone through. He wept at the tomb of a close friend. Toward the end of the story, he himself was in agony, agony of soul before he faced the same agony in his body.”

“[yet] He has done it. With Jesus, God’s rescue operation has been put into effect once and for all. A great door has swung open in the cosmos, which can never again be shut. It’s the door to the prison where we’ve been kept chained up. We are offered freedom: freedom to experience God’s rescue for ourselves, to go through the open door and explore the new world to which we now have access.
In listening to Jesus, we discover whose voice it is that has echoed around the hearts and minds of the human race all along.”- N. T. Wright, Simply Christian

Lord of All Stanfill
Here is a good live video of Kristian leading this song.

My Brightness Hall

The time of Lent has been referred to as the “bright sadness”. For many of us, we are going through a time of sadness, of darkness and pain. We need to know that God is with us, even in the midst of all of the chaos (he did, in fact speak into the chaos to create something beautiful in Genesis 1). This song was written by Charlie Hall when he was going through a very personal, intense time of darkness. I love the phrase in the bridge that talks about us knowing less about God, but our heart loving him more. God doesn’t always (or often) give us understanding. He does give us himself, though.

The Great Someone Original
This is a song I wrote about a year ago that has become dear to many in our church. It pulls us and reminds us about who God is and who he has made us to be. You can listen to a rough recording here. There are plans to make a legit recording very soon that may end up including many of your voices! Stay tuned!

Highlandtown 5pm Gathering
(we did a similar set with a few changes…) I was able to introduce some loops that I created for the Great Someone and Lord of All since I was leading solo. It was a lot of fun!

Majesty Smith
I remember the first time I heard this song at a large event in Atlanta as a teenager. I actually began weeping as these lines were sung: “Your grace has found me just as I am/Empty-handed but alive in Your hands.” I was drawn to my knees, because I recognized in a new way how I brought nothing to God. He is the one who fills me. I still am physically moved by this song, especially when a group of people sing it as a confession together.

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

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Baltimore, Music, Musings, Sunday Setlist, worship

Sunday Setlist: 2/26/11

(Other people do this here.)

This is a Monday Miracle! The Sunday Setlist is posted on a Monday before noon! It must be all the Sigur Rós I listened to this morning…

Sunday, February 26, 2012: Harbor East

Wake Up Sleeper Gungor
I love listening to this song..but playing it is another story! Playing this probably stretched me the most as a musician who had a very loose grasp of music theory. It is days like this that I am very grateful for a talented and creative band. I love you guys! A special thanks to Chris for working through all the hard parts of the song!

You Have Me Gungor
This song has become very special to me. It is a very simple song about how, when things fall apart, God is always faithful to us. It is incredible that when we find our faith “torn to shreds”, that is when we seem to find God. This is a love that goes beyond just mental belief. It is enduring relationship. And…the original recording of this song has a banjo!

Wholly Yours Crowder
As we have entered into a time of Lent in preparation for Easter, we decided to engage in this activity of “burying the Alleluia”. For some of you, this may be a weird concept or even seem legalistic. My friend, Josh, who has begun the process toward becoming an Anglican priest wrote something here that helps to better explain the tradition. So we will seek to omit the word from our liturgy, from our lives, until Easter. A verbal fast. We did that with this song, intentionally not singing it.

In Christ Alone Getty
This song has long been one of my favorite new hymns. I love the richness found in each verse. And you all did a wonderful job singing it! One of my favorite memories is singing this song a cappella in my theology class in college. After finishing a section on Christology (the study of Jesus and his work), one of the students requested that we sing that song. After all, proper theology (study of God) leads to doxology (worship of God).

Come Thou Fount Traditional
We sort of emulated the David Crowder arrangement of this song. I was really struck by the line “tune my heart to sing thy grace” and how it so perfectly fit with the message this week. Matt did a wonderful job explaining how we are born with a bad heart and how we need Jesus to give us a new one. It conjured up the picture of a child coming to Jesus with a little broken toy ukelele, and Jesus sends him away with a $3,000 Taylor guitar. And then he says, “Learn to play”. When we come to him and sing, worship, and learn in our gatherings, God is tuning us from the inside and teaching us how to play the melodies of his grace.

Sunday, January 19th 2012: Highlandtown
(we did a similar set with a few changes…)

Nothing Compares RockHarbor
See a video behind this song here.

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

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music, Musings, Sunday Setlist, worship

Sunday Setlist: 2/19/11 (incredibly overdue)

Other people do this here.

Sunday, February 19, 2012: Harbor East

The Resistance Niequist
Aaron Niequist’s music has helped to restore my faith in “church music”. I have become extremely weary of the worship music scene. To me, it began to sound all like 90s-era U2. (I love U2, but not all the time, and not when everyone else wants to sound like them. Aaron is an innovator. And he loves the church. Moreso, he loves the Movement of God in the world. And that is what this song is all about. God is working in the world, through us, to bring about his purpose. We are the resistance. We are the revolution. And we won’t back down. Go to iTunes and buy everything Aaron has there. Then go here and here.

Carry Each Other Niequist

This is another song that has come to be an anthem for our body. The story behind the song is good and you can read it here.

I love these words:

We’ve got:
Different gifts and different names
Different dreams and different ways
Different hopes and different views
Different walks but one God.
Different strengths and different paths
Different loves and different pasts
Different needs and different beliefs
Different dreams but one God!

Cannot Keep You Gungor
This is a song that can make you feel uncomfortable at first. After all, are we saying that the Bible can actually become an idol for us? Yes, yes we are. And I should know because I have been guilty of doing that very thing. And even more so, we can use the Scriptures to feel like we have an “angle” on God. Like we can pin him down and describe him in words. I think it is quite cute of us to use words to describe God like er… indescribable or omnipotent…those are kind of nonsense words. What I mean is that they forego the more (dare I say) biblical example of metaphor and simile and just jump straight into the more metaphysical, cognitive terms. Instead of us saying that God is like wind or air, we say God is omnipresent. All I am saying is that words have power, and when we use them to describe God, who has the power, us or God? As we sang, we cannot contain the glory (weight/importance/intensity) of Your name.
Michael Gungor’s blog about mystery is also quite helpful…and damning.

All We Need Hall
Charlie Hall is one of the more legit worship leaders out there. I once heard him say that his main goal was to help those he lead feel like they can come to Jesus without any shame. What would it look like if we did that? Anyway, this is a frightening and joyful song for me. It is a song I mean and want to mean more each time I sing it. My default is to want God when I “feel” like I need him; which is usually when I am broken down or have made dumb decisions. But the truth is I need him all the time. But it is going to take giving everything to him. I’m always learning how to do that.

Take My Life Havergal
This is a song of consecration: a song that is us telling God that we are setting ourselves apart totally for him. It walks through all the different ways in which we give parts of our lives over to God through singing about our lips, mouths, feet, etc. It was a good way to meditate on the ways in which I have not given myself fully over to God.

Sunday, January 19th 2012: Highlandtown
(we did a similar set with one addition for our Spanish-speaking friends! Note: you guys did an incredible job singing this past weekend!)

Everlasting God Tomlin
This is such a catchy song (I find myself singing it a lot afterwards). It was also really great to sing this in Spanish as Infinito Dios. Tú no dismayas núnca fallas!

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

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