Category Archives: church

Baltimore, church, Life, Musings, Neighborhood

An Important Life Update and Transition

[Greetings, all. I have communicated the below information to my congregation, colleagues, and some friends. However, I realized that it may be beneficial to share this in a more broad manner to those with whom I’ve connected through ministry, neighborhood life, friendship, and the many other ways our life paths cross. The quick version is this: I’m stepping down from my position as neighborhood pastor at Gallery Church Patterson Park to enter a time of preparation and focus for what may be next.]

[One thing I’ve realized is that there are far too many ways to communicate, and it is impossible to engage these media without having some of you be inevitably left out. I sincerely apologize if you are one of the ones who feel left out. If nothing else, it may just indicate that we need to connect in other ways!]

So, what follows is the letter I wrote to my congregation. Feel free to reach out to me with questions. If you are the praying type, I would appreciate your prayers as we step into a new season of life.

Dearest Gallery Church Family:

After much prayer, consideration, wrestling, and discernment—and with the blessing of other leaders, elders, and my wife, Kara—I am resigning as the neighborhood pastor of Gallery Church Patterson Park. I share this news with a sad and heavy heart and with a hopeful expectation for the future.

Almost nine years ago, at Pastor Ellis and Ginger Prince’s invitation, I moved to Baltimore with a handful of other people to help start the Gallery Church. We believed that a small group of people, with love in their hearts for God and their neighbors-to-be, could see real change happen in our neighborhoods. I still believe it, and what is more, I have seen it. Our God has been at work in his people in our city.

Since then, I have had the opportunity and responsibility to serve our church and city in so many ways. I am amazed and humbled as I think of those with whom I have had the privilege of serving. I cannot adequately state how much I have learned in my time serving with Gallery Church. I have been changed profoundly during my time here. I discerned a call to vocational/pastoral ministry here and have truly grown up here, spending almost a third of my life in ministry with Gallery. This church has taught me what it can mean and look like to walk together in challenging and joyful times.

And now, this journey continues for me. In transitioning from this position, Kara and I are taking a step of trust with the Lord. We do not have another church job lined-up. We are not planning on moving, but we are going to be entering a time of preparation. I will be investing some more time in my schooling to finish my degrees. I will continue to work part-time with HopeSprings, and I will be taking time to re-discover and seek clarity in my identity and calling. We sense that this is a necessary and important time for whatever lies ahead. What form that calling/vocation may take in the future, we are unsure, but we have a strong and enduring peace about taking this step, knowing full well it will be difficult and challenging for us and others.

Let me help to speak to a few questions or thoughts that you or others may be having. Many pastors tend to resign in the midst of controversy, that is not the case here. I want to be as clear as I can here: I have not had any sort of moral failure which would disqualify me from ministry. Kara and I are doing well in our marriage, growing in our love for each other and the Lord, and are united in this decision.

Additionally, there are not any secret or unsaid reasons for my resignation. In times like this, rumors can abound and certain “gaps” in the information can be filled in with gossip or speculation. There is not any enmity between me, or any of the leaders or staff in our Gallery Church Family. I have been challenged and blessed by the diversity of our staff team and by those with whom we have labored in our city. I love them, believe in them, and no difference of opinion or issue has contributed to this decision. I believe in what God is doing at Gallery and in our city, and I pray for God’s greatness to be continually displayed in our church family.

Lastly, some of you may be wondering if we will still be “around”—meaning, attending at Gallery Church in the coming months. We have no desire to “cut-ties” with Gallery. We still view you all as dear sisters and brothers and neighbors, so you will see us from time to time. Pastor Ellis has been very gracious and kind to continue to offer times for me to be with you, and to use my gifts when appropriate. We will be taking a few months to seek continued counsel, to worship with other faith communities in our region, and to pray through our family’s rhythms of life. We also feel that some initial “distance” will be the best way to love our Patterson Park family as they collectively discern what God is doing next. My last Sunday serving as the neighborhood pastor at Gallery Patterson Park will be January 15th, 2017.

Gallery Church Patterson Park has a unique and specific calling to uncover and run after. I truly believe that, and I believe God is already at work to provide for this next season. One of the benefits of belonging to a wider church family is that we have sisters and brothers who can support and walk with you in this time of transition. Jayme Swanson (our neighborhood elder), Pastor Bill Medina (our Associate Pastor), Aida Medina (Cross-Cultural Ministries), and Pastor Ellis will be working together with other key leaders at Patterson Park, and our Central Ministries team to help lead and serve the church in this next season. They will be ensuring that our gatherings and growth community life continue on with care and oversight.

So here is what I will ask you to consider doing in the coming days:
Pray— I know this sounds like the thing you are supposed to always say, but I could not be more emphatic. God has desires for Gallery Church Patterson Park that he wants to make known. There will be an upcoming time of Prayer and Fasting with Gallery Church Downtown from Jan 17-21 each evening. I encourage you to take time as a church family or as a growth community to come and to pray for Patterson Park and what’s next.
Invest— It is in times like this where the members of the church can sometimes sit back and wait to see what will happen. I encourage you to take this as a season of investment, both financially and spiritually. Please continue to give faithfully and sacrificially. Please take the time to get involved in serving. This is your time to be the church you hope to see.
Ask— Times like this can bring up questions and sometimes confusion. It’s more than ok to ask questions. I cannot promise we have an answer to every question, but we will listen and be available as much as possible until we transition in January.

This letter is not easy to write. Kara and I have felt grief and sadness as we have struggled with this decision, and we have wrestled with how to love you best during this time. I love you all and I am so thankful to have had the privilege to serve as your pastor over these last years.

May God’s Grace and Peace be with you,

Derek H. Miller
Advent, 2016

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church, Musings

A New Season of Ministry/Life/Vocation

I am starting to learn how slow some of the good things in life can be. The best meals take a long time to prepare and some of us best enjoy them slowly with the good wine or beer that has taken a lot of time to ferment and mature. It is these slow, holy moments where we seem to take the scenic route in life, finding that he scenic route better actually takes us where we should be going!

I think that I am seeing that some of the seeds planted in me long ago are just now starting to poke through the ground, and I’m getting a look at what just may be coming. Almost a year ago, I took a three month sabbatical. Since that time, the struggles of learning to hear God, to attend to God’s presence, and to just “be” more have had ripple effects that are just now beginning to take shape.

One of those effects is me taking a new part-time job with a non-profit. Starting this week, I will be serving as the Co-Director of Faith Community Outreach for HopeSprings.

My initial feeling of a call to helping start a church was rooted in hearing another pastor talk of his heart for the “unchurched” and “de-churched” over 10 years ago. I don’t remember his specific words, but he mentioned something about the nature of the church: it should be a hospital for the hurting, not a place for the perfect. A couple years ago, Pope Francis said it this way:

“The thing the church needs most today is the ability to heal wounds and to warm the hearts of the faithful; it needs nearness, proximity. I see the church as a field hospital after battle. It is useless to ask a seriously injured person if he has high cholesterol and about the level of his blood sugars! You have to heal his wounds. Then we can talk about everything else. Heal the wounds, heal the wounds. … And you have to start from the ground up.” (From “A Big Heart Open to God,” America magazine Sept. 19, 2013.)

I continue to wonder and dream, what would it look like for the church to recover her vocation to tend to the wounded and hurting in our city in way that is meaningful and responsible? What is needed to warm the hearts of the church again to the hurting who are all around (and within…and the hurting who are our very selves?)

What gets me so excited about this new opportunity is that I will be able to work with other churches in our area toward identifying how they can continue to better love their neighbors, particularly in areas of health inequality/disparity and those infected or affected by HIV/AIDS. I think that the future looks bright as the church learns how to love her literal neighbors as much as she tends to love herself. Also, what an incredible testimony it could be to our region if the Church decided that we can all partner together on the main call we have in common: to love our neighbors.

I will continue to serve in my current position as the Neighborhood Pastor of Gallery Church Patterson Park, though now as a part-time pastor. I love our church and I am excited about what opportunities are created by me shifting to part-time. I created a little FAQ for our church family here.

For those of you who are the praying type, I would love your prayers for strength, wisdom, and discernment as I make this transition. Pray that our church can rally together to focus in on our mission in our neighborhood and that God will continue to guide us and inspire us.

Who knows what will grow and bloom?

I’d love to hear from you about this? What do you see? Have you ever experienced a stirring toward a new expression of your vocation?

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church, church planting, Musings, restored, theology

Restored: What I’m Learning about Church Planting from HGTV

My wife has successfully converted me to watching HGTV.

It started simply and subversively; where she would tell me about the shows she liked or the ideas she got for our house while watching. I would draw back at first, thinking, “Oh great…we can’t afford to do that to our home!” or “Is this kind of like home decorating porn?” Then I would watch an episode of Fixer Upper and would fall in love with Chip and Joanna Gaines (“It’s like they are our friends and we would hang out!”) or an episode of Flea Market Flip, where someone made $300 off of an old, dirty window frame, a can of spray paint, and an old milk bottle.

Particularly, one of the shows Kara loves is Rehab Addict. For those of you unconverted or uninitiated to the HGTV faith, the host of Rehab Addict, Nicole Curtis, is obsessed with finding historic houses and returning them to their original glory and beauty. She always tries to use original features and materials where she can find them. The idea is not simply to flip a house and make a profit. It is a labor of love, spanning months and months, whose end result is to place back on display the original beauty and splendor of houses as they were originally built.

I compare this to how I’ve noticed houses are often “rehabbed” today. In our neighborhood, houses are being bought, redone, and sold for a huge profit margin. The house that we recently bought in Highlandtown was done similarly—modern feel, new kitchen, recessed lighting, etc. But I wonder: what could we be losing in this obsession with what is new and modern?

This has been an idea that I’ve been sitting on for awhile now, and it’s related to my own story. Part of my own motivation in getting involved in church planting (starting a new church) was because I felt like the Church was in need of renovation. How many of you have lived in a house while noticing all of the little issues with it? And you long to fix what’s wrong, but as you dig deeper, you start to notice the wiring is bad, and the wood is rotted, or that ugly, fake wood-paneling has to go—and before you know it, you’ve ripped the house apart?

In my idealism and younger days (though I like to thing I’m still kinda both!), I was convinced I was right and that finally, we were going to get the church right. And I had pretty much one tool: a sledgehammer. As a church planter, you can decide what you want to do and how you want to do it without the nuisance of other people in the church telling you what they think or questioning it. So I felt like we were starting with a gutted house; a clean slate. We didn’t sing at first because I was so burned out on the worship music machine, that if I heard one more song by Chris Tomlin or Hillsong, I was going to scream. We met in an Irish pub to worship, mostly because it was free and the food was amazing, but also to make our Baptist friends nervous. I would find myself talking a lot about what we weren’t, rather than what we were. I was proud that we were stripped down; I was proud that we didn’t sing.

It wasn’t until I started actually studying the history of the church with more depth and a little more humility, and I started to read about the world-wide movement of the Church, that I started to realize, in horror, what I’d done: I had smashed it all to pieces-I’d deconstructed the whole thing. The baby was out with the bathwater, but so was the old claw-foot tub and the tile in the bathroom. And as a result, I had severed the line between me and brothers and sisters all over the world and across time.

In the past few years, I have come to see the value of re-examining the things that the church has done and still does; the things that we share with those who share our faith. Not just the beliefs, but the practices which both arise from and inform those beliefs. So that is what this series is about: I want us to re-examine some of the core elements of our ancient faith. I want us to fight against the desire that we often have to think that we are somehow more enlightened or advanced that those who have come before us.

So, I decided to try to teach on this and explore this in our church family, because I often teach to learn. We will be talking about Word, Prayer, Sin/Confession, and Table in the coming weeks and how we can restore them to practice and use in our community and life together. Check out the latest podcast stream on my page here and let me know what you think.

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church, church planting, Musings, theology

Starting from Scratch? Church Planting as Deliberative Theology

The current trend of church planting has certainly seen a revival of sorts in the last few decades. For those who aren’t hip to the way cool church terminology of the day, church planting is the process of starting a new church “from scratch”. It usually involves a lead planter who will likely become the pastor (at least for a time) and he/she will pull together a team of people to be the building blocks of this new church community, usually called a core team. These people may be seasoned Christians or new believers; they may be local or from other places. Regardless, once they begin meeting together regularly, they begin the process of becoming church (or many would say, are church). The goal is to grow numerically and spiritually, with the desire to fulfill the mission they’ve been given. This, of course, plays out in different ways and forms, but the idea is that the “making of disciples” thing happens, because Jesus told us to do that. 🙂

Now, there are so many things to talk about when it comes to this process, and I am by no means an expert. Seriously, I’m not. I was brought in to that “core team” to help plant the Gallery Church of Baltimore in 2008. Eventually, I was able to come on staff for the church, fulfill a variety of roles, and now pastor one of our neighborhood churches. It has been a blast. It has been incredibly difficult. It has been rewarding. It has been frustrating. It has been instructive. I love it.

Which leads me to the particular topic of this post (and perhaps future ones). While this desire to “share the gospel” is certainly central to church planting, or it ought to be; there is a certain novelty in seeking to “begin again” with one’s church expression. My own initial draw to church planting was, to be perfectly honest, selfish and idealistic. In my view, everyone else got church wrong, I think I have it right, and if we just start over without all the baggage, we can “fix the church”.

I’m not alone in this; at least, I don’t think I am. Even in our own city, there is a newer church community endeavor called the Slate Project. On their website, they state the following:

“We are asking, “What if we had a blank slate for being and doing church?” (That is where the “slate” comes from, get it?) What would we choose to wipe away? What would we leave behind? What is no longer working or serving us? Where do we need to confess and repent and turn back toward the path, the Way?”

I am not criticizing this process or statement at all (actually, I find what they are doing intriguing, compelling, and very honest). And I have no insight into motives and am not even trying to guess or judge them. I’m sure they are far more pure than mine were. (to be clear: zero criticism here!) However, what I want to point out is something of which I personally haven’t seen a lot written: the fact that church planting is often just as much fueled by what it doesn’t want to be; namely the same old system. And as such, this creates a different framework and even theological process.

This process, to borrow a term from Stone and Duke in their book How to Think Theologically, is called deliberative theology. Deliberative Theology is the understanding of of faith that emerges from a process of carefully reflecting upon embedded theological convictions, questioning what has been taken for granted, reflecting on multiple understandings of the faith implicit in the life and witness of Christians, and identifying and/or developing the most adequate understanding possible. In short, it is the process of examining, rejecting, and accepting certain aspects of ecclesiology and tradition (in all their various forms).

So, here is my question/thought: could it be that church planting is, at least partially, an exercise in deliberative theology, writ large? Could it be that many who are even “attracted” to newer churches are in a place of doing deliberative theology themselves, their old answers and expressions no longer being satisfactory for their new questions and life situations?

Lastly, is this good or bad? Dangerous or beautiful? I hope to examine that more in a future post.

What do you think?

References:
Stone, Howard and James Duke, How to Think Theologically. 3rd ed. (Augsburg Fortress, 2013).

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church, Matthew, Musings, Scripture, Sunday

Thoughts from Last Sunday’s Text

This Sunday was the first time in awhile I didn’t really give a sermon. We had an open mic time of sharing about the events of this past week in Baltimore, how we are processing, what we need to pray for, etc. It was a beautiful time and I was very proud of our church family.

We then read Matthew 10:16-23 and I gave 5 thoughts which came up as I read them. I wanted to just share them, without much commentary.

When Jesus sends us out, we are promised authority and presence, not safety. (v. 16a, 17-18)
We have a responsibility to be wise and to act with integrity. We need to act in peace, but act strategically. (v. 16b-17a)
We cannot avoid conflict as we seek to proclaim and embody the kingdom of God. (this is hard for me) (v. 21-22)
The only way we will be successful in our mission is if we go empowered by the Spirit. (v. 19-20)
Our work is never done, until Jesus returns (v. 23)

Any thoughts?

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Baltimore, church, Holy Spirit, worship

When We Gather: Prayer

If I am to follow Jesus, then the simple fact of the matter is I must seek to pray like Jesus prayed. And this is no small thing. Perhaps I am alone on this, but it seems that the conversation on prayer too rarely goes back to the model that Jesus set (with the exclusion of the “Lord’s Prayer”). I love how Jesus offered that example when asked how one should pray. But I am also intrigued as to how Jesus modeled prayer throughout his life

He was a good Jew. He most likely went through the daily prayers like the others during his time. We, as a Gallery family, have started doing something called “Daily Windows” (taken from Daniel 6) where we enter into this pattern of stopping to recognize God’s presence to be reminded of our dependence on Him. And I know through my conversations with others, that this has been incredible for us. I am excited for this coming week as we step into more times to pray and fast together as a family.

However, Jesus prayed outside of those times as well. He would spend much time in solitude to pray. He begged his followers to pray with him before he was to be crucified. He prayed before choosing his disciples. He sent up random prayers of gratefulness to the Father. He talked to God as a son to his father; with respect and intimacy.

To put it in one hyphenated word, Jesus life was prayer-soaked. And mine isn’t. And if you were to be honest, yours probably isn’t either. It is one of the areas that we can never get to the point of complete satisfaction. I don’t think I can ever say with complete honesty that I pray enough because my prayer life is directly proportionate to how much I think I have to depend on God.

Raymond Brown puts it this way, “To be prayerless is to be guilty of the worst form of practical atheism. We are saying that we believe in God but we can do without him. It makes us careless about our former sins and heedless of our immediate needs.”

I would add to this by saying even if we are content in the state of our prayer life (and not seeking to grow in it), we may be guilty of the same form of atheism.

I want to pray for the things that Jesus prayed about. And I want to be serious about those same things. I have struggled lately with getting caught up in some secondary issues in Scripture as I have been studying the past few weeks (hence the gap since my last post). Not that these things are bad, but I have been convicted of the fact that I am not concerning myself with one of the big things that Jesus prayed for: unity. This is another topic for another day/post, but consider the following things and ask, “When is the last time I prayed for this?” It has been revealing for me.
-protection for all believers
-unity for all believers (likened to the unity between Jesus and the Father)
-believers having the full measure of joy
-sanctify them in the truth
-that the world may believe in Jesus because of our unity
-that the world will see our love and, thus, see God’s love
-Your will be done
-daily bread for everyone
-forgive all our sins
-the power to forgive others in the same way

The list could go on. How do you pray? How should we pray? Is this a struggle for you?

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church, worship

When We Gather: The Scriptures

Scripture
Some of you may have been waiting for this one to come around. Don’t worry, I’m not leaving it out. I mean, if I didn’t include it, I would be considered some sort of heretic or something. However, I will not go down the all-too-predictable road of throwing out words like “inerrancy”, “authoritative”, or “verbal-plenary inspiration” (that last one was just for kicks!). I am coming from a somewhat conservative viewpoint on the Scriptures, the details of which can be discussed later if you would like.
Instead, what I would like to discuss is the place of the Scriptures in corporate worship and the church at large. That is, its use. Perhaps we can begin with how we should not use the Scriptures (again, me being aware of the dangers of creating an opinion based on the negative side of an issue…I am open to being challenged here as always!).

We should not use the Scriptures…

As a trump card- Ever heard of the term “proof-texting”? This is what happens when someone (I’ve been guilty!) takes a passage or verse out of its context to support his or her own beliefs. Anyone could do this to justify a thousand different behaviors. So, instead of this, we will consult the Bible as a whole and try to let it be what it is.

As a sword to wield (hold on hear me out!)- Ok, yes…the Word is called a sword. I know. But, consider this thought: If it is sharper than any double-edged sword, do we really need to stab people with all of our might? Our motivation is to love always. When the Sword cuts people (notice, the Word does the cutting, not us!) we should grieve along with them in the pain and be prepared to apply the healing balm of mercy and grace.
I had a conversation with a former classmate once and as we were talking about the use of Scripture in sharing our faith, he insisted that we use the Bible to “poke holes” in the arguments of others and then “sweep in” with the truth of the Bible. While I understand that his statement was made with a heart that desires to see people come to trust Jesus, does it not sound combative? May I suggest that the “holes” that he was referring to need not be poked but merely exposed. A doctor does not show his patient that he needs care by exacerbating his symptoms. He gives proofs. He shows x-rays. He runs diagnostics. The Bible is not some sort of spiritual drill and wood putty combo. It is a tool used by the Holy Spirit to grip us at our deepest level. Consider the famous passage with maybe a fresh perspective: “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” Hebrews 4:12 (emphasis mine)

As an instruction manual- Bible=Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth. Anyone heard this before? Again, I understand the heart behind such a statement, but, to me, it is more indicative of this weird Christian culture desire to be cute rather than accurate. If it is truly an instruction manual, it is quite possibly the most poorly written one in the world (although there are some handy maps at the back if you are interested in knowing how to be a missionary and get shipwrecked and thrown in prison.) However, there is a mindset that states that if the Bible is not explicit in any given area, such a thing is not permissible. Much of the New Testament is descriptive and not prescriptive. While there is value in the descriptions, they are not necessarily binding in how we should conduct ourselves, nor are they complete. While this must be navigated carefully, we are seeking to be a community of faith influenced by these great stories, submissive to the commands of Jesus, but not restricted by what is not mentioned. (more on this later)

As an inspired translation- Oh my, the translation battle. We, at the Gallery, use the NIV. It’s a decent translation. I personally try to use as many translations as possible when I study the Scriptures. It is important to remember that a translation is just that…a translation (although, you could also argue that a translation is also an interpretation). We are grateful that the Scriptures have been preserved and we can hear them in our language. No translation is inspired or more holy. We are more concerned with trying to live out the ideas presented and not in the minutia. Please, no comments about translations or arguing about which one is best (assuming anyone is reading this).
So how will we use the Bible? The same way many others have before us. We will read it together. We will sing it together. We will examine it together. We will question it together. We will study it together. We will seek to obey it together. We will let it read us rather than just the other way around. (there is a theme, here!)
We will always understand that the Bible has borrowed authority. God is the one with the authority.

These words may be challenging to your thoughts of Scripture. They have been for me. What do you think? I would love your feedback, friends.

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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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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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