So, here I am in the middle of this monstrous creative music project…taking most of a year to write, arrange, orchestrate, rewrite, get help with charts, find an orchestrator, consult with people in several other countries, studios here and there, working with other musicians, professional and amateur…
Yet, in the past 2 weeks I have found the sounds of 3 grandchildren to be ultra-profound. A 9-month old granddaughter…shapes her mouth into a perfect “ooo” form, leans forward, and utters soft, innocent cooing sounds…a 2 year-old grandson who jumps up and down with a big smile, banging 2 empty plastic bottles together while I make up some song never to be remembered (and when the song is over, he actually wants more!!!)…a 2-week old granddaughter who cries loudly, even when I try to make up a soft, soothing lullaby. What creation of mine could possibly compare to the music of another generation being sounded?
Jubal, you should have been there…humbling in the best sense of the term.
So, back to Africa I went…again. This is now the 3rd trip in the past 7 months, with 2 left to go! This trip was the expected set of very helpful and important meetings with some really nice people…people of all kinds! The centerpiece of the trip was 5 days in a studio in a small town outside of Cape Town…recording African percussion, high school aged singer, children singers, and adult men singers. It was a real parade…with other things in between as well. There is nothing quite like having real people do real music. It wasn’t all that polished and professional, but very real and wonderful. I wondered many times…”How did I get here…doing this?” My mother certainly never would have imagined that her bribery to get me to practice the piano would lead to places like that! (By the way, she should have bribed me more than she did!) Anyway, the project I’m working on is certainly a once-in-a-lifetime deal. Even with technical difficulties and the like, it is a real rush to be involved in this project. If you’re interested in the conference, the website again is: www.lausanne.org. Check it out, and pray that I can actually get it done! It’s going to be a long summer of writing…lots of isolation!
Jubal, we were playing percussion on clay pots and all kinds of things that YOU probably never even thought about!
If you’re a sports fan at all, you will have noticed that this past week John Wooden passed away. What may not be so readily apparently is any relationship between John Wooden and worship leadership. I saw many correlations! In fact, this was the last week of class for the quarter and I took copies of the diagram of Wooden’s Pyramid of Success…and some of Wooden’s many famous, insightful quotes, to class for discussion. The Pyramid of Success is a set of philsophies that Wooden taught and embedded in his UCLA basketball teams, but also had great application for success in business and other areas of life. As I read once again the words on Wooden’s building blocks of success, I was amazed at how many of them paralleled principles we have talked about in class as we worked our way through Oswald Sanders’ book, Spiritual Leadership. Things like integrity, character…and others. In a future blog I’ll make more specific references to Wooden’s quotes and principles that I think could be used for worship leadership success as well.
Jubal, you should have seen John Wooden’s basketball teams play. They were really good!
Well, the Jubilate! mass project is over…I think. I said it was over once before, but it was only just beginning then. Now it’s been recorded, performed again, so what’s next? It needs mixing and finalizing, I know that. It’s been a great adventure for me. If you want to have a CD of the work and keep track of other related happenings, keep checking the Brehm Center site…www.brehmcenter.com. I appreciate all of the interest that so many of you have shown toward me on this part of the journey. I’m so proud of the students who put so much effort into supporting, performing, recording, etc. They were remarkable the whole way!
Jubal, so the mass is complete for the moment, now on to Africa!
UUUGGGHHHHHHH! I saw it again! A service I visited recently had the following format: 2 songs, announcements, a song during the offering, a sermon, and a closing song. In asking a few questions of some friends following the service, I discovered that what I had observed was the normative structure. I was heartbroken, because the thousands of people who gather for that service now think that worship is like that…a sort of a sermon setup! I wanted to yell….”NO, THAT’S NOT WORSHIP!” I see this kind of a pattern over and over again. My mantra has become, “Any four songs does not equal worship!” If your church is doing that, don’t allow it…say something…make a difference! Insist on the real thing!
Jubal, sorry for my ranting on this…but it’s just not right!
If you’re in SoCal next weekend, please feel invited to JUBILATE! An Ancient-Future Concert Mass…Friday, May 14, Lake Ave Church Chapel in Pasadena. This mass is quite unique, and has been written by one of Jubal’s very close friends…ME! If you’d like to read more about the creative process that went into the creation of JUBILATE!, please go to the following link:
So, on Saturday my daughter sent me a text saying that she had looked at the songs that would be sung in her church on Palm Sunday…and there were going to be NO Hosanna songs! I responded to her that I was sad about that, and I was certain that MY church would have some Hosanna songs. So, with anticipation I entered the worship space listening for every Hosanna that was said and/or sung. The children came in, waving little palm branch replicas…BUT, no one EVER said or sang Hosanna the whole time!
Should I be legalistic about this…is it a rule to say or sing Hosanna on Palm Sunday? I suppose not, but then again, you would still think that just maybe on Palm Sunday someone would be able to slip in at least ONE Hosanna for those of us who were trying to make our church look better than those churches that completely ignore the whole day! Maybe?
So, Jubal…any thoughts about that one? I was sure I had one up on my daughter and her church, but I guess not!
On Friday, February 12, “Jubal” will be hosting a special session with Gordon and Gail MacDonald based on Gordon’s book, Ordering Your Private World. The session is being held from 1:30-3:00 pm, PST. You can login from the Brehm Center website at www.brehmcenter.com.
Through a gracious invitation I attended the Candlelight Ceremony at Disneyland…yes, the home of Mickey and Minnie!It was a grand event in the style and standard of excellence that you would expect from a Disney production…right down to the classy ushers.The stage was well laid out and ready for the program…the lights were tested…mics in place…again, just as you would expect from Disneyland.Jon Voight came to the lectern to serve as narrator.His first words were something to the affect that secular society had turned Christmas into something it wasn’t.Christmas is about Christ and His birth.He proceeded throughout the program to read directly from the Gospel of Luke…the Christmas story.It was intermixed with Christmas carols that were familiar to all.The words “God, Jesus,” and “Christ” were mentioned liberally during the evening…perhaps more than some churches will do in their attempt to make the message of the season palatable to all!In all of our “cultural sensitivity,” have we turned Christmas into something other than Christmas…and Disneyland has to do the world a favor by keeping that message pure and simple?Maybe so…
So Jubal, you would have approved of the program.Those herald trumpet players up on top of the Disneyland train station were blowing in the cold wind, but nailed every note!You would have been impressed!
They ended the program with the reading of the James Allen Francis poem, One SolitaryLife.If you haven’t seen this, or it has been a long time, here is One Solitary Life.
One Solitary Life
He was born in an obscure village,
The child of a peasant woman.
He grew up in still another village,
Where he worked in a carpenter shop
Until he was thirty.
Then for three years
He was an itinerant preacher.
He never wrote a book.
He never held an office.
He never had a family or owned a house.
He didn’t go to college.
He never visited a big city.
He never traveled two hundred miles
From the place where he was born.
He did none of the things
One usually associates with greatness.
He had no credentials but himself.
He was only thirty-three
When the tide of public opinion turned against him.
His friends ran away.
He was turned over to his enemies.
And went through the mockery of a trial.
He was nailed to a cross
Between two thieves.
While he was dying,
His executioners gambled for his clothing,
The only property he had on Earth.
When he was dead,
He was laid in a borrowed grave
Through the pity of a friend.
Twenty centuries have come and gone,
And today he is the central figure
Of the human race,
And the leader of mankind’s progress.
All the armies that ever marched,
All the navies that ever sailed,
All the parliament that ever sat,
All the kings that ever reigned,
Put together have not affected
The life of man on Earth
As much as that
I went to church yesterday with anticipation of celebrating the Advent season…since it was the 2nd Sunday of Advent.Entering the church, I was immediately struck with the beautiful decorations…lights, Christmas trees, HUGE star hung at the back of the platform…yea, it’s Christmas!The band came out and started to play…sounded good…then as we went from song to song to song…nothing about Advent, Christmas…nothing!The songs would have worked just as well in July as they did on the 2nd Sunday of Advent!I was disappointed.
I understand that there is no rule that any church must sing Advent songs on Dec. 6.I do know that, BUT this is one of the great seasons of the church year.We not only celebrate the 1st Advent…a Savior was born!That’s a big deal!We should give attention to that!We also are in the preparation mode for the 2nd Advent - Christ’s return…or do we not really believe that?Hmmm…?I heard more real Christmas music outside of the church than inside this weekend.Is that the right statement to make about our beliefs?I hope not!
Jubal, I know you were around before even the first Advent, but don’t you think there should have been some indication for the reason for the season except for the nice lights and trees and star…?
