Why getting it right is not enough.

There are so many bad songs that we incorporate into our practice of worship.  If these songs were evaluated at the pure level of song writing they would not make the cut.  Somehow though when we give them over to the genre of divine meaning making we not only allow them we revel in them.  Yet if we’re honest certain ones resonate as better than others but why?

We gather together out of need to practice truth.  So much of our lives bang around in the less than satisfying false narratives of the world.  This banging around slowly takes life away from us.  We come to church to practice truth again and have life restored.  In light of this we need songs that speak to the reality of existing.  When we have songs that use language from the bible with out correct appropriation (and I’m not just talking factually correct to our theology) they mean little or nothing to our souls because they don’t speak to the truth of our human experience.  Part of this is because the machine of Nashville which has been infiltrated all but completely by the false narrative of consumerism simply creates formulas that song writers plug in.  The assumption is these formulas produces meaningful songs…wrong they produce songs that are actually hard to sing because they feel more like lying than worship.

I was reminded this morning how so many of Don and Lori Chaffer’s songs mean a lot.  This seems to be because they are born from honesty and presented that way too.  Songs like: I could run away, you are so good to me, this is to remind me, when the cold wind blows, those who trust, though i feel alone, etc.  Yet when a major band in Christian music covered “You are so good to me” the song somehow became stripped of a lot of the honesty it originally bore.  This was due to it’s new presentation which spoke less of the honesty the song spoke and more of the machine.

So let’s get it it right yes but let’s also get it honest.  We need to have songs that are crafted from honest hearts willing to hold the tension of the already but not yet in their own lives.  We need lyrics that reflect that personal tension because it speaks to the universal tension in our collective narratives.  And we need music and phrasing that is honest and not cliche.  Then we need to present these truthful songs through recordings and most of all through live presentations in our churches in honest ways.

Subtle Places of Power

- ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED AT IMMERSEJOURNAL.COM -

According to Dr. James Pennebaker (a psychologist at the University of Texas) there are words that our brains don’t comprehend in conversation. These words are function words, like I, it, the, etc. Our brains are more concerned with the bigger concepts of the conversation, so we just brush over these functional words. Pennebaker has made a name for himself and his colleagues by diving into functional words and sharing what they can tell us about ourselves. In his book, The Secret Life of the Pronoun, he talks about the use of the word I.

We often think of confident people as using the word I a lot, but in fact, says Pennebaker, the opposite is true; those who are more insecure use I much more often. It’s the same with telling the truth. Those who tell the truth are not afraid to associate themselves with the subject, so they use I more, and those who are lying tend to distance themselves, leaving them with a much less frequent use of the word I. In a conversation or group situation, the word I can also act as a signpost for differing power positions. Those using the word I more are most likely to be holding a smaller power position, and the leaders or ones in power use I very little or not at all.

So how does this relate to youth ministry? Well, I am curious: Where are the I’s in the room, both with conversations between you and youth and between teen and teen? A study of your I’s could possibly expose some of the underlying places of power in your youth ministry, though subtle these places make a big difference in the message of your ministry.

Functional words are not the only signifiers for where the power is in the room. Pennebaker debunks the notion that body language is a strong suggestion, but there are others. Three examples might be:

The dynamics of the seating in the room – Does it feel like everyone has a voice, or is it more like a theater with an audience and performers?

Use of technology -Have you thought about equal footing in regard to amplification? Do your presenters talk at youth in a one way direction, or is there a vibe of dialogue at some level?

Structure of the schedule – Is your time together structured so that leaders always know (and dictate) what is going to happen or do youth have the ability to lead the way in places?

The world has always been obsessed with power as a way to separate itself from God, which makes knowing where power lies in our communities an important issue, since the economics of the kingdom are to saturate our communities, even down to the logistics of our conversations and gatherings. So perhaps it is worth asking what the power structures are in your youth group and if those structures line up with those of the in-breaking kingdom. Often we might not even realize we don’t line up with this implicit curriculum of our gatherings, and we will want to change it to line up with our group values.

Pennebaker does note that changing the language of our conversations does not change the power. The language is a reflection of the self, meaning that the self must be changed in order for real change to occur. So changing our habits (like our use of I) won’t necessarily change the DNA to line up with God’s kingdom if it’s not already there, but perhaps changing habits can kickstart the change of self too. After all refinement does come in the oddest ways sometimes and who knows, maybe there are things we believe and act on right now that God would have us change if we’d only listen.

Pennebaker in a short video discussing these concepts 

The Secret Life of Pronouns website

Press Release for Pure Gold

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Kansas City, KS, May 2nd, 2012  – In the fall of 2011 the four members of the Bizmarks went into The Impossible Box studios in Mid-Town Kansas City, MO to record their second EP.  After their first release gained them the name “the best band you’ve never heard of” from INK and second place in the Billboard international song competition the Bizmarks came into the studio with a heart full of new ideas.  After comfortably sinking once again into the production and engineer help of Mike Crawford the Bizmarks put together what is their most cohesive and honest work yet: Pure Gold.

The name Pure Gold comes from the title track, a tune that explores the truth of self when the self is explored with out the filter of preservation.  This theme of truth seeking permeates the ep and capitalizes the best with the Avett Brother’s like tune, When the Dawn Breaks. Moving effortlessly from blues to rock and alternative country the Bizmarks create a soundtrack for all seasons.

Utilizing the digital only format the Bizmarks have released this ep via Band Camp, iTunes, Amazon, and the like.  Through their Band Camp (http://thebizmarks.bandcamp.com) site though they offer loads of add-ons to a full ep download including: demo versions, alternative versions, a behind the scenes video and more.

The Bizmarks play rock music for those whom have an ear to hear. Raised on the Psalms, Lightning Hopkins, and Springsteen—and given keys to the kingdoms of the imagination as teenagers—the Bizmarks have grown up together and know what they like. That translates into sounds that reach to the past, but look to the future.

The Bizmarks, Pure Gold

Tracks
1 Pure Gold

2 Girls

3 Flowers

4 Let’s just give this a dry run

5 When the dawn breaks

6 Empire is burning

“The Bizmarks sound like a rock band who knows how to rock, fronted by a singer who knows how to sing, playing songs that are great to listen to. What more can you ask?”
- Don Chaffer (Waterdeep) 

“The Bizmarks show warm glows and sparks of Dylan, The Stones, and Jack White. The intro to the opening track hums like a b-side from the early Stripes. There’s a reckless abandon that lives in that chorus. When the Dawn Breaks, is the most fully actualized track on the EP.
The guitar, piano, and vocal sounds meld together like comfort food. Warm. Simple. True. Carnal. The music takes you on a long ride back to the places most familiar, but to reveal the memories you’ve long forgotten.”
- Will Gray (willgraymusic.com) 

Learning to make space for the tension

THIS WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED AT WWW.IMMERSEJOURNAL.COM

If what it means to be human is found in relationship then the ability to be mindfully present with others is really important in our spiritual journey. This is especially true for youth workers if the old adage “you can’t give away what you don’t own” has any truth to it.  In order to be mindfully present though first we have to be able to know ourselves enough to identify what our issues are and second we have to be able to hold in tension the honest reality of our own situation along with the present reality of the space we find ourselves in.  This is not easy.

Spiritual Disciplines

Spiritual disciplines really help, especially meditation and journaling.  Both meditation and journaling are ways of inviting Jesus into us in an integrated way.

Meditation is an act of becoming mindful of the things that fill us up in order to invite Jesus into the space of those things.  Jesus helps us discover, name and organize these residuals of our lives. This doesn’t happen so much in a cognitive way though, being able to describe our inner workings with descriptive language is usually the last thing available to us because of how our brains work.  I’m not convinced that we have to be able to name everything though.  Often feelings or intuitions communicate in a language that is enough to help us navigate wholeness. The more time we spend in meditation the more we making the needed space for the master to fill us up.

Journaling is also an act of becoming mindful.  Have you ever kept a dream journal? For two years I would have these dreams that involved animals, many times they were lions. Some times the lions had full mains other times they looked shorn like a sheep. Some times they would notice me and some times they wouldn’t. I felt these dreams deeply and knew that my pre-conscience was trying to tell me something but it wasn’t until I began to reflect on them consistently through journaling and meditation that I was able to connect them to places and things inside me.  Whether it’s keeping a prayer journal, a daily reflective log or a dream diary journaling can be a tool that helps us better know ourselves.

Holding the tension 

How many times have we been unable to really engage with someone because something in the immediate environment has triggered our concern for ourselves? Countless times have I been with students in a sort of  half present way.  Holding the tension is coming to grips with our own needs enough so that they don’t dictate us.  There’s a level of trust that is required there though.  It’s a trusting that we’re okay and that we’re going to be okay. Jesus is constantly whispering this blessing to us: that we’re his that we’re okay and even still we’re going to be okay but we have to listen to hear it.  When we’re okay so to speak we can make space for the other.  This is the ability to really hear and have actual empathy for the other human being I’m with.

The example of Jesus

Jesus was the archetype human.  God had become that which God wanted to save.  When Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane and his friends deserted him it must have been disheartening.  His disciples, the only ones who might have had a chance to bear with him a part of what he was going through, continually fell asleep.  Yet in that moment Jesus showed us how to be present.  He turned to God, holding in tension what must have been a painful reality along with the present task at hand.

We are called as youth workers to be places of the blessing of Jesus.  Yet there are a lot of tensions and pressures in our lives everyday that threaten to undo us. Spiritual practices like those that lend to mindfulness help us find the space needed to hear the blessing and offer it through actual, present ministry.

The Power of Story: why we go to Church

We go to church to hear the gospel from each other. The more we tell the gospel to ourselves the more we can make it available for others by bearing witness to it.

Stories help us make meaning. My son attends a Montessori school. While I love Montessori (the whole work is play and play is work is awesome) it is still hard to drop off my son when he’s crying and anxious about being there. Something that we do to help Elliott make his 3 times a week transition is tell the story of what’s going on. We say “Eli we got in the car and drove to school together today. And now we’re at school where your going to work with Ms. Natalie aren’t you? And then mommy (or daddy) is going to come back and get you isn’t she?” Elliott responds to this story and these questions with nods and sniffling yeses. We do this several times. Each time he hears this story his anxiety goes down and he becomes more available to begin his work that day.

The Gospel is the story that makes sense of this life for us. The more we hear it the more life makes sense (even though it can still hurt like hell) and the more we’re ready to engage it as a people or person of life.