Katie Payne is starting a new band for the Wedgewood campus and needs a player/collaborator. Katie is a great gal to work with, she has a strong voice and I can’t wait to see and hear what she’s cooking up! See her “want-ad” below and leave a comment if you’re interested. I will make sure to get the appropriate folks connected.
We are in need for a strong lead guitar player/song arranger/potentially keys too if you can do it. I have rhythm guitar/keys, bass & a drummer already.
About me: I have been going to Mars Hill since 2003, became a member 2004 and began singing with Pastor Tim shortly thereafter. I have been singing backup for a long time now, and just have recently taken over the role of band leader, leading a group at Wedgwood. We are rehearsing almost weekly, so I need someone willing to serve with that time (depending on schedules, holidays, etc…) and we are looking for a creative person who is strong arranging, writing tunes, etc…Looking for a committed person ready to jump into the thick of playing quite a bit while growing creatively with a group.
We’ve been having some typically blustery and rainy days here in Seattle as of late and I can’t get enough. Come March or April, I probably will have had enough and will be ready to move on to our beautiful Spring and Summer weather. Until then, I enjoy a cup of tea and seek to find some music which accentuates the gray skies.
In all of his glory, though, Satie worshiped art as an end in itself and toyed with spirituality in a variety of ways, apparently never coming to a belief in Jesus. He even started some kind of bizarre church for art/artists. I found some interesting info on this here.
As Christians we can’t worship art as an end in itself, but it seems like more often than not, we’re so afraid of doing so that quality gets sacrificed. Is God more glorified when our offering of worship is more excellent by human standards? I find it curious that so many of the greatest artists of all time have been in it for their own glory and not the glory of God. What does this say? Can you not be simultaneously a worshiper of Jesus and someone whose craft is perfected in a more humanistic way?
Here’s an audio link to Harold Best’s first session at the Continuous Worship conference. Here’s the video. Just so you know, Best speaks like his book reads at times so he has a tendency to cram pack a whole bunch into a single sentence. But once you lock into his flow, this will challenge your thinking about the true nature of biblical worship. There’s a great balance here between head smarts and heart engagement that (when taken in a John 4 worship-in-spirit-and-truth sense) is really compelling. If you really want to get a lot out of this lecture, read the third chapter of John Piper’s Desiring God as a supplement.
I’d love to hear everyone’s comments on this so please comment away!
By itself this piece of music is extremely moving, but when coupled with this section from the film Baraka it is beyond heartbreaking. Lisa Gerrard has an astonishing voice, which has been heard more recently in a lot of other films like Gladiator and Black Hawk Down. I was fortunate enough to see Dead Can Dance live on their reunion tour in the fall of 2005 at the Paramount Theatre in Seattle and can say without a doubt that her voice filled that space in a way I’ve never heard any voice fill a space before. Breathtaking. (more…)
It is interesting that the most famous of all English language hymns, and one about the unfailing love and grace of the Lord, was wrought from a life of struggle and conflict. Amazing Grace has been sung for centuries now in many different contexts as the ultimate song of redemption and change. Its author, John Newton, was no stranger to the “dangers, toils, and snares” he wrote about. His story is a classic tale of God’s hand and grace is one sinner’s life, which was truly nothing less than “amazing.” (more…)
Last Sunday I gave a pitch to the evening service congregants that we needed bass players and drummers to help rock the flock. Below is a “want-ad” from one of our new band leaders, Caleb, who is currently working on a new worship-band project. Read on and leave a comment on the blog if you are interested and I will make sure to get folks connected.
Needed : bass player and or multi instrtumentalist. Must be male or female and be intrested in many
genere’s of music except Dave Matthews. Our band is like prog rock twang. See Byrds, Jethro Tull, Deerhoof, Wilco(later) The Who , The Kinks, The Band, Led Zep, Wes Montgomery, and Early and late sixties stuff.
As we did the research for this project the most difficult topic quickly became temptation. There are very few songs written about temptation and none of them have any stories attached to them. The unfortunate reality is that Christians don’t tend to talk about real temptation and struggling with sin. So we had to go with someone a little more recent and a lot less “religious”.
Johnny Cash was born in a small town in Arkansas in the middle of the Great Depression. The middle child of seven the Cash family had a lot of things, but money was not one of them. Like many in that era they eked out a meager existence through odd jobs. Johnny began working the cotton fields at age 5. He grew up around church, gospel music and listened to radio with every spare moment he had. Johnny was a creative child, a constant dreamer, drawn to music from the very beginning. This often put him at odds with his hard working, blue-collar father. Johnny idolized his older brother Jack and was devastated when he died in a tragic sawmill accident. All these things profoundly shaped Johnny Cash and motivated him to leave the hurt of home looking for freedom and success in life as a musician. (more…)
Fall has settled in deeply in the Northwest. Today’s magic number was 54 marking both the high temperature and the wind speed of the storm that blew the last leaves off the trees. Sunset was at 4:36pm leaving twice as much dark as light these days.
Don’t get me wrong… I actually like the fall. Each year as the season turns I like to get out my favorite sweaters, I start to break out the pipe tobacco and my playlist turns to Sigur Ros.
I first heard Sigur Ros on KEXP, a local radio station. I remember driving along when Svefn G Englar I had never heard anything like it before.
The Continuous Worship Conference back in September featuring Harold Best was a big success. Originally we were unsure about the turnout but we were pleasantly surprised. There were several hundred in attendance and it was a good time of networking with other music ministry folks and reorienting our hearts and minds toward the purpose of music related worship.
Our own Mark Driscoll opened the evening with a very well articulated lecture on the opposite of worship, namely, idolatry. You can listen to the audio by clicking here.
Stop back in soon and we’ll be sure to post the rest of the audio content in the coming weeks.
Doxologist Content
We’ve been having some typically blustery and rainy days here in Seattle as of late and I can’t get enough. Come March or April, I probably will have had enough and will be ready to move on to our beautiful Spring and Summer weather. Until then, I enjoy a cup of tea and seek to find some music which accentuates the gray skies.
As we did the research for this project the most difficult topic quickly became temptation. There are very few songs written about temptation and none of them have any stories attached to them. The unfortunate reality is that Christians don’t tend to talk about real temptation and struggling with sin. So we had to go with someone a little more recent and a lot less “religious”.