The late spring/ early summer is turning into quite the concert season around Tampa, a city not known for good shows (unless you like the Dinosaurs that roamed the earth in the 70s and 80s, especially the metal dinosaurs). Here are some of the good shows coming, some of which Kristi and I will be attending. Put on your concert duds and join us (seriously, let me know if you are interested in any of these shows- we would love to have some local Tampa friends join us).
Also on Saturday, The Gaslight Anthem is playing with the Heartless Bastards at The State Theatre for $13.
Exactly 1 month later (June 2) will be the show I am psyched for. Manchester Orchestra (have I mentioned their new album) will be bringing down the State Theatre in St. Pete. The opener is Fun, a new band consisting of members of the Format (most underrated band, ever) and Anathallo. I have heard one song by Fun, and yes... it is fun. This show is $11. Tell me if you are interested!
Animal Collective is June 8.
Then on June 10, comes Bon Iver and an opener that excites me even more, Elvis Perkins, again at the State Theatre for $18. Kristi and I definitely have this one high on the list. The next night, June 11 brings my favorite "Christian" band to the State Theatre, mewithoutyou ($14).
Then in July Gogol Bordello comes back to town (Jannus for $20). And, if that is not enough, The Avett Brothers will be bluegrassing across the stage at the Cuban Club for $17 on July 18.
And this does not include Kings of Leon, which Kristi would love to see, but is pretty expensive, considering how many good bands are coming for much less money (May 8)
"It has always been more difficult to come to terms with Jesus as the way than with Jesus as the truth, more difficult to realize the ways our thinking and behavior get fused into a life of relational love and adoration with neighbor and God, God and neighbor."
The first of many quotes from a recent Eugene Peterson talk. I will post the link later, but want to give you a couple of snippets, because they are so pithy and good, even in a truncated fashion.
If there's a single word that identifies the contemplative life, it is congruence—congruence between ends and means, congruence between what we do and the way we do it. So we admire an athlete whose body is accurately and gracefully responsive and totally submissive to the conditions of the event. When Michael Jordan played basketball, he was one with the court, the game, the basketball and his fellow players. Or take a musical performance in which Mozart, a Stradivarius and Yitzak Perlman all fuse indistinguishably in the music.
Congruence also occurs often enough in more modest settings: a child unselfconsciously at play; a conversation in which the exchange of words becomes a ballet revealing all manner of truth and beauty and goodness; a meal with friends in a quiet awareness of affection and celebration, a mingling of senses and spirit that adds a eucharistic dimension to the evening.
Raising Children in Florida is a bit different than raising kids in the real world. Kids find things such as high humidity, bugs and snakes on the sidewalk normal. The beach is a conventional activity which excites less than the playground, while mountains, snow and culture are the stuff of legend. You slather on bug spray and sunscreen to go outside and dare not venture to the back yard in the summer, lest you are attacked by mosquitoes and other assorted flying creatures.
Amusement parks, golf, tennis and every dialect of Spanish are part of your every day experience (my kids think Amusement Parks are average experiences of every day life. But, if you live 3 miles from one it is stupid to not buy season passes), as are monster trucks, hurricane watches, predators and palm trees. You think the odd is unexceptional, while you miss the beauty surrounding you every day.Crazy people are everywhere and you need to pay attention to where you walk, since old people do not pay attention on the roads or in parking lots. It was the way I grew up. Heck, I thought it was commonplace to have a dog bitten by rattlesnakes every year, explore sinkholes/ underwater caves and ski/ swim in alligator or shark infested waters.
In fact, when we go to the zoo, aquarium or any other "natural" place, my kids are unimpressed with alligators. They are like snowbirds and drunk spring breakers, just part of the scenery and more common than someone graduating from a Florida school with a good education. That said, apparently I need to teach my kids to watch where they are walking in parking lots for a reason besides idiotic drivers.
This guy was found car shopping one block from my parents' house yesterday.
This one was found trying to deliver pizza at some Tampa lady's doorstep last week.
This guy trying to raid someone's fridge last year.
as I have been thinking of 1 Corinthians 13 and Paul's admonition to grow up, stopping thinking and acting like a child and start thinking and acting like an adult, in response to leaving something behind that has probably stunted my growth in many ways (I may talk about it in a public venue at some time), I keep thinking of a song by Toad the Wet Sprocket, a song that I have shared on my blog before.
It is a song that has been a prayer of mine since I first heard it over a decade ago. Throw it All Away can be a little preachy and obvious, but sometimes the best sermons and Bible passages are not particularly subtle, especially if we don't have the ears to hear the nuances.
The line that has always stuck out to me, is this: "with the time I waste on the life I never had, I could have turned myself into a better man."
take your cautionary tales take your incremental gain and all the sycophantic games and throw 'em all away
burn your tv in your yard and gather 'round it with your friends and warm your hands upon the fire and start again take the story you've been told the lies that justify the pain the guilt the weighs upon your soul and throw 'em all away
tear up the calendar you've bought and throw the pieces to the sky confetti falling down like rain like a parade to usher in your life take the dreams that should have died the ones that kept you lying awake when you should've been all right and throw 'em all away
with the time i waste on the life i never had i could've turned myself into a better man
'cause there ain't nothing you can buy and there is nothing you can save to fill the whole inside your heart so throw it all away won't fill the whole inside your heart
help me empty out this house the wool i've gathered all these days and thought i couldn't do without and throw it all away
Floridians have more license plate options than you can imagine. We have licenses with panthers, dogs and cats, clown fish, manatee, bass, spoonbills and cave divers. They include licenses to support breast cancer research, pro-life causes, tennis, organ donation and home ownership. You name a sports team in our state and you can have a license to support that team. To see a list, click here. But, we don't have anything that says, I am a Christian, beyond fish symbols, bumper stickers and rosaries from the rear view mirror. Many Christians have noticed that it is unfair to be excluded from trumpeting faith from the back of an SUV, because nothing says "I love Jesus" like a license place while cutting people off in traffic.
While I will only say this is about as useless as an expression of faith could be, even moreso than T-shirts, pens and mudflaps, St Pete Times' columnist shares his insight in What Would Jesus Say About His License Plate, noting that not only does it potentially break the 2nd Commandment, but it is quite tacky. Did Jesus die so we could depict "the Son of God, the Lamb, the Savior …On an official state of Florida automobile tag. An auto tag?" according to Troxler (thank the Lord for "Secular" journalism).
other Money quotes:
Jesus is to be mass-produced, imprinted on metal, given a reflective coat and sold for money. His crown of thorns will lie just beneath the "FLORIDA" across the top of the plate; his outstretched arms will be truncated to the left and right by the tag numbers, so that one does not actually see the cross, the nails, the wounds — no, we would not have that! The words "SUNSHINE STATE" will be stamped across his unscathed, unlashed torso.
Instead, my first thoughts were more about the stories of Christ in the Bible, angrily throwing the money changers out of the temple, and instructing his followers to pray privately in their closets rather than displaying prideful piety on the public streets like the "hypocrites" (which is exactly what he said. Look it up.).
just in case you are offended by an image of Christ on the back of your automobile, here is a quite class and snazzy opther option, all of which still await votes from a Florida legislature with nothing better to do with their time.
On my blog and twitter I mentioned my problems with Earth Day and its fans. My problem is that Earth Day is to Environmentalism what Valentines Day is to Love. It is either a celebration of the every day experience one has, or it is something crass. To often, it is a marketing scheme to sell something green (like Valentine's Day sells something with hearts) and to talk about something you care about every once in a while and then forget the next day.
I said that what one talks about on Earth Day should not matter. What one talks about on the Monday after Earth Day should matter. To that end, I am teaming up with a friend to offer some ideas, tips and thoughts on sustainability and our part in it. This friend, whom I will unveil when the process is complete is someone dear to my wife and I. I performed her wedding ceremony, she has been part of 2 churches I have led, she helped deliver our second born and her husband and she have been instrumental to many things in our lives. In other words, I am not unbiased regarding her value to this conversation.
She takes the environment seriously and lives it out, not through preaching, self promotion and book writing but through learning, teaching, traveling, education and as a green business owner. Because she is not a self promoter, like most of the people I seem to know, you may never hear of her and her ideas, which are light years ahead of where most Christ followers, even the earth friendly crowd, are.
I hope to unveil this series soon and would love to get some of you to share it once it happens. It is part of what I have been convicted to share lately. As I did with my post on Christian organizational structure, I will be promoting the work of someone with very little voice in the greater conversational circles. I am beginning to feel that part of what I have to offer (even in a small way), is a voice to those with something we should be hearing, but with no desire to promote themselves. In other words, we need to hear from the non-Celebrities and I want to do my part to help them get their words seen and heard, especially those that came before us and are wise (or wise beyond their years in this person's case).
When done, I hope you like it and spread the word so others can hear such a voice.
my wife is going to the beach this weekend with her sister, so I will be single dad for 3 nights and 4 days. I doubt I will be blogging much, unless I need a break from 3 children under 8 years old. Wish me luck and say a little prayer for my sanity and my kids' safety.
If you are a happy idealist, please don't read this.
So, its Earth Day and everyone is wearing green. Businesses are telling us how to buy their products through greenwashing hoping that we will give them the green they actually care about. Networks are touting green initiatives they ignore every other day of the year. Products using too much packaging are telling us how environmental they are and everyone is using this as an excuse to show off their green cred, earth piety or once a year conviction.
It is kinda like Easter and Christmas for nominal Christians, a time to think about something we will forget about until the next time it is all over the media. While I should appreciate Earth Day and the sudden emphasis, it is hard to get myself excited. It is the same reason I don't get excited about Black History Month and MLK Day, relegating something so important to a day, week or month, so we can appease our guilty conscience for the rest of their year. Yes, it is a start. Yes, it is better than nothing. Yes, we have come a long way. But, I am more concerned with what people do and talk about on the Monday after Earth Day than I am on Earth Day.
I am cynical because I think you either care about your impact upon the earth and take it into consideration when making decisions or you do not. You either think about how your decisions and lifestyle effect other people, animals and the environment or you do not. No Earth Day emphasis is going to change the minds of those that do not care. It will only guilt them into silence for a day.. or they will act like it matters to them because they want others to think they are with it (see most corporations and many churches).
I am also a bit cynical because I attended my first Earth Day Celebration 20 years ago, convinced it would change things. I took the whole thing seriously and put my money where my mouth was. I was considered a freak by most of my fraternity brothers and my Christian friends. Luckily, we have come a long way, not because of earth day celebrations, but because of people like Al Gore making movies and churches finally getting on board.
However, what was an emphasis a couple of years ago, probably due to gas prices and scare tactics has become familiar and even uninteresting to many in light of recession, good gas prices and someone that may actually kinda like the earth in the White House.
So, do something for your planet today (of course, if we did what our planet really wanted, we would cease to exist). Or don't. Just don't act like you care unless you really do.
1. rant warning- Did you see this? The New York Times reports that 2 of the terrorism suspects were waterboarded 266 times. One of them was waterboarded 83 times, while the other (a bad man I do admit- but punishment is for the courts to decide) was waterboarded an astounding 183 times. I have a hard time believing each of those times were to get info, and none were for other reasons. But, however we feel about these individuals, how can one not believe that waterboarding someone 183 constitutes anything but torture? Seriously, how blind to your own nationalism or belief system does one have to be to think this is acceptable behavior, especially if one believes in the concept of American Exceptionalism (if you believe in this, you must see that what makes American "great" is its "values"- and the values expressed by this, are not particularly exceptional). And if you are a Christian and feel this is justified, you need to reexamine your belief system, because something besides Jesus and Scripture are guiding you.
Un-freakin-believable.
Rant over
2. Did you check out Bono's latest op-ed in the New York Times? While disjointed it is worth reading, covering Carnival, Christianity, lent and Easter for believers and non-believers. There are lots of great little quotes, including:
I come to lowly church halls and lofty cathedrals for what purpose? I search the Scriptures to what end? To check my head? My heart? No, my soul. For me these meditations are like a plumb line dropped by a master builder — to see if the walls are straight or crooked. I check my emotional life with music, my intellectual life with writing, but religion is where I soul-search.
and
So much of the discussion today is about value, not values. Aid well spent can be an example of both, values and value for money. Providing AIDS medication to just under four million people, putting in place modest measures to improve maternal health, eradicating killer pests like malaria and rotoviruses — all these provide a leg up on the climb to self-sufficiency, all these can help us make friends in a world quick to enmity. It’s not alms, it’s investment. It’s not charity, it’s justice.
3. Manchester Orchestra's second album dropped today. It is phenomenal, seriously. Wow. I was writing a review and then saw Paste's. It literally said everything I was going to say, only better. Imagine a bunch of young emo influenced Christians that showed serious potential their first time around, realizing they wanted to make a big rock-n-roll album while channeling everything good about Nirvana and not sounding derivative. This band could be a future Emergent Idol band if they continue on this trajectory. The lyrics are for anyone except those with sensitive Christian ears, easily offended by doubt. The opening line of this album is, “I am the only son of a pastor I know who does the things I do."
Anyway, here is the review by Paste. I really needed this album after so much navel gazing post-rock and folky stuff. I needed something smart and rowdy. It is the perfect combo of the holy grail- intelligence, melody and noise.
During my tenure in Boston as a church planter, I was given the opportunity to spend time with some of the wisest older leaders I have ever come into contact with. These men and women, all in the their 60s, opened their hearts and homes to my wife and I and taught me more than seminary had ever hoped to. I, as a young emerging church pastor realized how little how I knew about missional approaches to church, social justice, systems theory and organization structure.
One of those older leaders, Dr. Doug Hall, is the president of the Emmanuel Gospel Center in Boston's South End. He and his wife Judy moved to that neighborhood in the early 60s to lead the efforts of a small homeless shelter which they turned into one of the more impressive ecumenical holistic Christian organizations in the world. One of the pioneers in urban ministry (and still no book written- he is not like my generation. we write books before we have anything to say), Doug is a student of systems and organizational theory and influenced greatly by Peter Senge at MIT. He would sit me down in his office on a regular basis to explain his ideas and how they should impact Christianity and the church... ideas that need to be heard by more than me and those lucky enough to spend time with Doug.
One of Doug's mantras was that Christian organizations and systems need to be expressions of the Christian faith. In other words, we need to get How we organize and lead something from Jesus. This sounds simple, but in Doug's mind it was something different from the standard understanding of this. To Doug, that meant we must organize in a "Christian" manner. He had a simple org chart to show this, but I have taken his ideas and created my own implications of this mantra.
Here are a few ideas about organizing and organizational structure (some his, some mine), some of which I have put into practice in church, family and the departments I have led. Seeing an organization as a complex system (within the larger system and interrelated with other systems), there are some of particulars that should be associated with a "Christian" system (or organization/ structure):
Redemption and Relationship must be the MARK of our organization (a redemptive spirit and attitude towards culture, people, world, etc.)
Creation (or creativity) must be part of organizing
Organize for the common good (and in a manner that manifests this)
Partner with others relationally (be very open source and ecumenical. I would add that we must flatten structure when at all possible)
Our organization must treat all in a redemptive manner
When our organization messes up, or our best laid plans have unintended consequences we repent (organizationally), ask for forgiveness and learn how we can better organize or communicate in the future
We must then recreate in a more redemptive manner (it is circular/ not linear in nauture)- redemption is the key
Our communication should be honest, open and redemptive.
How we organize, how we communicate, and how we come to our decisions regarding these things are indications of our belief systems. For example, in my college fraternity we made decisions regarding who was part of our group based upon specific criteria, which were open to interpretation. However, in the choosing a pledge, one could see the value systems of each member, based upon the choices made. We would not admit it, but there were values based upon looks, potential, popularity, what each person offered (not always money), temperament, etc.
As the church makes its decisions, it betrays its understanding of the world and its value system by the decisions it makes and the manner in which it makes decisions (the "how"). The decision itself is important, but the "why" behind it is much more important. The How and What communicate Who we really are and What we really believe. This is what makes torture so onerous. Not only is someone hurt, but it communicated to others what we really think about people and their worth. The church must not fall into such a trap (which I think Christian organizations fall into more often than not- we organize according to other principles).
A Christian organization must be intentional to be "Christian" in its organizational structure, communication and leadership. If it is not intentionally different, it will follow the standards of others while insisting it is not. If we are redemptive our organizing must be redemptive in manner. If not, we revert back to the systems Christianity should be redeeming (and our organization needs to be redeemed from Day 1).
“In a contemporary society lacking relational culture, churches are becoming dysfunctional at an alarming rate. Our society’s mental models teach us how to get things done without relationships. Earlier cultures enabled us to operate in a more relational manner, but in our day, while churches work hard to help people relate to God, many have forgotten how to help them relate to each other.
Sitting in my Clinical Pastoral Education class, the Supervisor leaned towards one of the students and asked this simple question, "have you accepted your own salvation?" It was the kind of question that made a few of us sit up in our chairs and take notice due to its subtlety. If you had grown up as I had, you had heard "have you accepted Jesus Christ for your salvation?" many times. In fact, you had been coerced, rehearsed or forced to answer this question multiple times, sometimes in the same meeting. For many of us, the familiarity not only rang hollow, but brought contempt (as Willard has spoken of) for the line.
However, I had never heard this exact statement... not once. Probably just a throw away line by our supervisor to cause a student trying to control a situation and "play God" in the lives of others to reassess his issue, it struck me as terribly profound. To a person that comes from a belief system that considers personal salvation the epoch of human experience and importance, this hopefully causes a bit of dissonance. It is one thing for one to believe in the idea that he has been saved from something, but it is something else to look in the mirror of his life and see himself as no longer in control.
I am sure a few readers will disagree, thinking that "of course, we see ourselves in this light. We made a decision to accept this." However, others may realize that living this acceptance of our own salvation has more to do with issues such as control, power and self regard than it does with morality and doctrine. If I believe that I am finite, limited and unable to "save" myself apart from another (as I do- it is how I define "depravity") then an issue such as control may be the hardest part of salvation and spiritual formation. It is cuts to the heart of the narcissist in all of us.
If I am playing God in the lives of others, attempting to control them, or pushing my own sense of perfection or normalcy, then I am not living as one that accepted their own salvation.
If I am living as if God needs me to mount of defense or prove God's love, wrath, power and existence I have not accepted my own salvation from my own self and my own mind or control.
If I am trying to (as Bono eloquently put it) "help God across the street like a little old lady" which I see in so many of the Internet fights, pseudo conversations and debates over doctrine, practice and "truth," I need to be reminded of my desire to deify my own mind and its understanding.
I may need to realize that the hardest part of accepting my own salvation is accepting that I am no longer in control of anything, especially others. Sure, many of us give lip service to such a concept, but I question the ease of this for anyone with a healthy ego and sense of self, which means pretty much anyone in Christian leadership (preachers, theologians, college profs and bloggers). This has become a new question I ask myself on occasion, and it may be something I add to my repertoire when directing someone spiritually.
This whole thing has gotten me thinking about the flip side to Peter Rollins confession that he denies Christ's resurrection every time he does not:
serve at the feet of the oppressed, each day that I turn my back on the poor; I deny the resurrection of Christ when I close my ears to the cries of the downtrodden and lend my support to an unjust and corrupt system.
However there are moments when I affirm that resurrection, few and far between as they are. I affirm it when I stand up for those who are forced to live on their knees, when I
speak for those who have had their tongues torn out, when I cry for those who have no more tears left to shed.
At the church we visited on Easter Sunday, led by friends of ours, we sang "I Saw The Light" by Hank Williams Sr. As I sang a song I grew up hearing, more on my dad's 8 Track player than at church, I wondered why this simple little song, bearing nothing in common with the great hymns, with a melody that could be considered hokey by today's standards resonates so strongly with me (and others I would presume).
I wonder if it is the same thing that brings such power to Come Thou Font, Amazing Grace and It is Well With My Soul along with gospel songs written and sung by Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley and even Ryan Adams or Kanye West. In each of these songs there is an underlying darkness, whether it is because of the past actions of the person (Amazing Grace), the doubt of the writer (Come Thou Font), the tragedy of life (It is Well With My Soul) or the inability to reconcile the belief system one has to the world in which one finds himself (Hank Sr, early Johnny Cash or Kanye West).
It is not surprising that most of the good examples come from country/ folk and soul (and hip hop). However, I think this is why some of U2's songs have been canonized, as well as works by Rich Mullins, both of whom struggle(d) with much of what I described earlier. It is also why a song such as The Lust, the Flesh, The Eyes and the Pride of Life by the 77s works so well. Dark honesty of the human condition and longing for something you know you have not achieved works well for many of us. But, I will acknowledge, personality-wise it is the same reason some of us are drawn to the Emerging Church or liturgical music versus the happy, happy, joy, joy Charismatic music. Of course, I would wonder if the best songs written straight to God, with no apparent darkness, still have it underlying (see the hymns above, as well as I Saw the Light).
As I think of this, I wonder if this is one of the reasons contemporary church music (praise and worship, etc.) usually lacks anything beyond an emotional high and lyrics that could have been written by a computer program that randomizes Biblical phrases and words. People feel a spiritual buzz when they sing it, but it leaves them in the same state of euphoria they feel after a kiss from their significant other, longing for another song but untouched by something deeper and other-worldly.
This other worldliness or transcendence is something I will talk about in another post. However, do the songs that hold the most sway come from a place of extreme honesty as opposed to a desire to write a song to be sung in church because it is expected or you want to hear people sing your songs or you are feeling awful happy about God today? Does this unsettled spirit, the same that creates the greatest art, also create the best church music? As one that loves the paintings of Van Gogh, films of Hitchcock and the music of Hank Williams, this makes sense to me.
When I was younger, I was told to look at the lifestyle of those creating contemporary Christian music to see if their words and the actions were in alignment, not understanding that many of the great songs we sang in church were written by those that would have been ostracized by the CCM industry of the 80s and 90s. As I have grown up, I have realized that many of the great songs of Christian faith have been written by those that did not always believe it, hardly ever lived it (whatever it is) but always longed for it (at least a connection to God). Since they could not experience it, they wrote and sang about it. It is why so many great musicians left the church and CCM or struggled to hide who they really were. In fact, I have heard this from many of my friends formerly involved in CCM and church music.
So, just maybe I need to find all the songs written to God by drunks, drug addicts, former drunks and addicts, along with those struggling with (or happy with) doubt and ask my church to sing those.
in part 2 I will explain why Arcade Fire writes better church music than Chris Tomlin in part 3 I will explain why church music is kinda like Disco music If I continue I will look at why church music works better when it comes from community and common experience, why I think hymns work better than praise songs (and we need to write new hymns), why I think it is so hard to write good church music (especially theologically centered church music) and try to figure out who is doing it better. Of course, I may give up very quickly.
Here are a couple of good articles I ran across today.
First of all, we have Bishop Tom Wright (N.T.) writing in the Times of London. His essay, entitled The Church Must Stop Trivializing Easter is a nice companion to the ongoing conversation Tony Jones is having at his blog on why Jesus died and why Jesus rose from the dead. Bishop Wright and Tony have different approaches, but end up saying similar things about the implications of the resurrection (which is what matters more than arguments on which theory of the atonement is blessed by any of us). Wright points out that church has missed the point of the resurrection much of the time, seeing it as the Good Ending (Jesus raising from dead and going to heaven) to a Sad story (crucifixion) instead of seeing it as the event that changes everything.
Secondly, Tom Sine gives us the best practices of some churches which are proactively dealing with the recession, financial crisis and job loss of those in their surrounding community. Last month, in a profile of Drive By Truckers, I said that the blind spot of the emerging church could be the lower middle class, or working poor (the emerging church is responding to extreme poverty and rich intellectuals well enough). Tom is asking similar questions and giving us the ways some are answering them. If you are part of a church, consider some of these suggestions or practices as you help those caught in the middle of the recession.
Quotes from Arcade Fire, usually Winn Butler, that I find intriguing (though most of them are not as compelling as the quotes from the previous article)-
on performing: “A good percentage of rock bands, when they perform it’s a totally sexual thing. But I don’t think we’re that sexual. At least that’s not what we’re singing about or acting out. On a goodnight, it’s more like the ecstasy of St. Theresa.”
on how the band makes decisions: "We basically share the same general vision. It's not quite the Quakers, where you have to be unanimous. I guess we're a democratic republic, a federal system."
why they remind me of the emerging church world and its ethos, instead of the modern megachurch system: (Richard Reed Perry- multi-instrumentalist): "We're trying to navigate a culture where people manufacture a lot of garbage. The goal is not to sell the most records or be the most famous. I think everybody in our band thinks we're trying to do something that's real and has some lasting value to it."
on community: "Boarding school, the army, or church are the only places where people are forced to be in a community with people they wouldn't choose to be. I think it's valuable to be in a community with people you have nothing in common with."
and
"The band is definitely a community. The bands that last are the ones that realize that and put priority on that first. But it's the same principle with a two-piece band. In a large band, there's just more relationships to maintain."
on religion: "There are things about organized religion that I find interesting. I'd probably have a more interesting conversation with the Pope than with Howard Stern. I think that people mistake describing something for understanding it- that happens in religion a lot. There's a lot of metaphorical language in the Bible, but I think that the human imagination isn't equipped to deal with the idea of eternal life."
"Churches should replace hymns with Arcade Fire songs,
more kids would sing along."*
How many of you guessed this? Ohhh Canada! I had to pick a band that did not hail from these United States and included both genders in its leadership, one that explores the past and future; mining many traditional sounds and world elements, yet is still totally part of its own culture, a band that is obsessed with religion, consumerism, community, activism, etc. It sounds like Emergent, especially its younger future. It also helps Arcade Fire's cause that it is the premiere band to debut since the emerging church conversation's advent in its present form. Plus, I like picking a band that is not even "Christian" which should satisfy Emergent's critics ("I told you they were not really Christians. If they were, their official band would be Caedmon's Call").
Of course, I am basing this on just 2 albums, one of which is really the official album of Emergent more than any band could take the title official band of Emergent. However, based upon this album and what I think we are in over the next decade, I designate Arcade Fire the official band of Emergent.
Just as Emergent has had its Lesslie Newbiggin, Brian McLaren, N.T. Wright and Stanley Grenz and is moving to new voices, Arcade Fire is the next step in spiritual music's evolution, beyond Radiohead, U2 and VOL.
Its first EP made little splash, so many critics and listeners were not prepared for Arcade Fire's debut, Funeral (it reminds me of the early 80s when R.E.M.'s Chronic Town EP which no one heard was followed by Murmer, which blew my bedroom door off its hinges). A bunch of intellectual Canadians working as a community, led by a husband from Houston and his French Canadian wife, astonished listeners by conjuring up the spirits of the Talking Heads and Modest Mouse, while turning those bands on their heads through traditional instrumentation and
choir-like choruses. Funeral sounds like wheels coming off of a Gospel bus, chaotic but ordered, like the beginning of the universe or the warning shots of a band to be reckoned with for a long while.
It is an album that deals directly with the reality of death, but laughs heartily and hopefully in its face, daring it to direct confrontation. Its lens is the "neighborhood" handed to us by our parents. It is to be destroyed, but not angrily. It is to be confronted and destroyed to build a new world, one focused on faith, hope, love and community (a theme expanded upon on album #2). Does this sound familiar?
While not as spiritually direct as its follow up, Arcade Fire speaks to us by creating otherworldly music and new hymns it will perfect on Neon Bible. They reach a transcendence on this album that contemporary praise and worship cannot, beyond the emotional heart pull of your typical never ending crescendo of praise choruses. Listen once to Wake Up and tell me you do not wish church music reached those heights, everyone singing in unison. It is an album of renewal.
But it does not prepare us for the intense spirituality of the next album; the main reason I consider Arcade Fire the official band of Emergent, or emerging Christianity. That album is entitled Neon Bible and I hope you own it. Named after John Kennedy Toole's first novel and sporting a sound church worship bands should study like a sacred text, Neon Bible declares what we considered a possibility with Funeral; this could be the new U2 or Bruce Springsteen (its musical poppa, along with Talking heads).
To call Neon Bible a dark album is to miss the point. Yes it is dark. Yes it is angry. Yes, it is intense and almost devoid of humor. However, like the film Magnolia, it builds the relentless despair to prepare the listener for the hope of the final quarter. In fact, the last 1/3 of the album is on par with the best album ending of all time (Abbey Road's final act). Built on a wholly emergent understanding of community, Arcade Fire shoot broadsides at the church, religion, America, consumerism, war and Western Culture in general. However, as Winn Butler said in an interview, He "is addressing religion in a way that only someone who actually cares about it can. It’s really harsh at times, but from the perspective of someone who thinks it has value.”
The ultimate goal of this album, stated in the same interview is to move beyond the fear which has caused so many of the problems our culture has. Winn states, “There are two kinds of fear: The Bible talks a lot about fear of God—fear in the face of something awesome. That kind of fear is the type of fear that makes someone want to change. But a fear of other people makes you want to stay the same, to protect what you have. It’s a stagnant fear; and it’s paralyzing." It is that fear that the emerging church is fighting, and these anthems should become part of its hymnody, a hymnody that stands against (according to Butler) "this idea that Christianity and consumerism are completely compatible, which I think is the great insanity of our times.”
The Christian themes of this album have been explored by those more talented than I, namely David Dark. However, I can tell you that no specifically Christian album has spoken to me like Neon Bible in many years. In fact, I put it with The Joshua Tree, The 77s, Killing Floor, Circle Slide and The Turning as the most spiritually significant albums of my lifetime.
From the Black Mirror of the opening track which illuminates the future, to the golden calf American Christianity has created in Neon Bible, the prophetic cry of Black Wave/ Bad Vibrations and the realization of the damage the church can do to those which love it in the grandiose hymn Intervention ('working for the church while your family dies"), the first half of the album pulls no punches in its indictment and I feel its weight. However, it does not prepare me for the power of Butler and company's descent into the heart of an American Christian (Jessica' Simpson's dad standing in for each of us) in struggling to do the right thing, while trying to live the American dream and failing miserably in the song (antichrist television blues). The final lyric of the song, "Oh Lord, am I the Antichrist" never leaves me without a chill down my spine.
And the album has not even approached its crescendo. Windowsill is probably the most preachy song on an album of sermons, but very few Christians have dealt with the subject of American power, Empire and consumerism in such a compelling manner. This song has become a personal anthem of mine, part of a ritual I do to focus myself when I become to enamoured with myself, my nation, or my lifestyle desires.
And then comes the hope. After showing us the condition of our hearts, our faith and our culture, Arcade Fire chooses to remind us that there is a hope beyond this world we know, one filled with community, connectivity and humanity at its best in No Cars Go. And of course, they end the album with a hymn (organ and all) dedicated to connection with each other and the world beyond in My Body is a Cage. Even though the singer lives in an age that calls darkness light, he cries to have his body and spirit set free.
Amen. Neon Bible is a litugry for these troubled times, a church service we need to go to this Good Friday and Easter, knowing from the darkness of Friday, hope arrives with resurrection Sunday.
An indictment of the American religious condition and Western culture that is only saved through personal responsibility for the needed changes based in community and hope for the future sounds like a Christian movement I want to be a part of. In fact, it sounds like a Christian movement I am part of. And that is why consider Arcade Fire the official band
of Emergent.
Arcade Fire's Neon Bible was my Top Album of 2007. Here is what I said about it then. link
I am sure some of you were gunning for Mr. Stevens, a strong contender for the crown of Official band of Emergent. However, to be truly Emergent, one has to be a bit of a contrarian and pick something not explicitly Christian, so down goes Sufjan. Sufjan is Emergent's Official Singer Songwriter, barely beating out Bill Mallonee for the crown. He could also be considered the official band of Hip Christianity, if there were such a thing (contrary to some, I don't believe there is). He is definitely the cool Christian musician you pull out of your arsenal to prove that Christians make relevant music and that Christian music can be critically acclaimed (plus your mom will like him and he is actually harmless, just like Emergent). Steven could be the postmodern Bono, if Bono played banjo.
Sufjan is definitely not the official musician of the New Calvinist group fronted by Mark Driscoll. Stevens' music is too precious, sweet and in touch with the feminine. In fact, he could be considered chickified to Driscoll, so Neo Reformed guys should not listen to Sufjan Stevens, lest they lose their Man Card issued by Rev. Driscoll (of course, a few hours of UFC can atone for any Stevens' listening I am told).
Why would Sufjan, who is less established, beat Bill Mallonee? Because he is less established. While Bill hearkens back to what is best about the last 15 years theologically and musically, Stevens is a harbinger of the future of music, especially white music. He is collaborative in his art (a hallmark of Emergent Christianity). He has been more influential on Christians and culture in general in much less time, changing many of the rules for others musically. He stands lyrically on the shoulders of a Rich Mullins and Mallonee, but he is more musically adventurous, using ideas (many borrowed from traditional folk and jazz, as well as the romantic era) that are proving themselves to be emerging, judging from his influence on peers and followers.
Incidentally, I am not as enamoured with Sufjan Stevens as the rest of the Christian and Indie Rock community (especially were those meet and Stevens is deified). In fact, I think his music, while original and adventurous, is a bit of a One-Trick Pony (I must admit that one trick is quite impressive). He tends to rely on a specific vocal style and orchestration, whether acoustic (always banjo) or symphonic. As I prepped for this posting, I listened for hours and found myself bored at times, much more so than I felt while listening to VOL, U2 or Beck. I am very interested in his next project, to see if he has progressed and moved into a new direction (or taken things farther).
If not, it could be like an Emerging Christian or church that began very adventurous and got stuck in a rut (see Driscoll) once comfortable.
Sufjan Stevens is high on the list due to this adventurous spirit, original musical vision and his propensity to retell familiar narratives of the past in a new way, finding the new angle, fresh metaphor or fresh perspective (through instrumentation and lyrics). He avoids cliche like it is the plaque (to be ironic) and demands of himself a new angle, when an old word is expected. He tends to find Jesus and spirituality in the mundane or familiar story, whether it is Superman as Jesus, Young Love morphing to cancer treatments and prayer groups or ancient Christmas carols and hymns. He is a parable speaker (Peter Rollins as songwriter?). He is rooted in the American story, taking the myths and reassigning them new meaning. This is an impressive feat, probably born out of his MFA in creative writing more than anything else.
Plus, he lives in Brooklyn, which has to mean something.
To some it is a travesty to see Vigilantes of Love and Bill Mallonee's name so low on this list. How could I not put Mallonee higher on the list? Apparently I don't really get Bill and his music or I would put him #1. To anyone that says this, I would share this posting, documenting why I think Bill is among the most important musicians of late Christendom, and this, a list of his Top 10 albums according to me.
Anyone that has known me for 10-20 years would find that very amusing, huh? I have seen him numerous times, hung out on occassion, promoted his shows, and bought each of his albums. Anyway, Bill and his band VOL are not the official band of Emergent. They are the official band of Narrative Preaching and (along with Rich Mullins) the band of Narrative Theology. I would also have them share the space with Over the Rhine as the official band of Literate Christians, especially those of a reformed nature.
As I will show momentarily the only reason VOL are not higher on this list are the things most of us love about them. Namely, VOL and their music are too grounded in the Southern experience (mine I might add) to be the official band of a movement as diverse as Emergent. The top 2 bands, while not as impactful on the conversation and its participants, are much younger and musically adventurous (it is my intention to move this conversation musically away from "what I and my ilk like" to something broader. Consequently musician #2 is someone I consider less the singer-songwriter than Bill. However, those in their 20s consider him godlike. Hence, #2's higher ranking. I am not Emergent's future. They are. So, their musician should be).
I would also add that the strong reformed undercurrent marking most of their 90s output would have Mark Driscoll and his followers brand them as the official band of that New Reformed movement. In fact, VOL is one of the bands that brought many of the early leaders of what is now Emergent (it was the Young Leaders Network at the time) and other groups together. It was a bit of an acid test for many of us. If you did not know and love VOL's music, how could you consider yourself someone that thought outside the "Christian subculture."
VOL was one of the common links between myself and the church planter, Chris Seay. We bonded over many things, but VOL was at the top. The words of Bill's songs spoke to both of us and helped our journeys to a more open ended version of the faith of our Baptist predecessors. Both of our minds had been blown by the best Americana album of the quarter century, Killing Floor and the southern rock gem (not the Lynyrd version of Southern Rock, but something deeper and richer) Welcome to Struggleville, an album that Capricorn Records should have promoted with the full fury it gave to the lesser artist 311.
Bills songs speak to the common experience most people do not express aloud, yet he sees the world through the eyes of a Jesus follower. This keeps the darkness at bay, like in our own lives. He sings of doubt, love and hurt in a rich baritone voice that bring the weariness of Dylan and the laid back energy of Tweedy into a neat package. No Depression magazine should have put him on the cover monthly.
Bill is also a storyteller on par with Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan and Kris Kristofferson (better than Springsteen). In fact, Lyrically, very few artists, Christian or not, are in his league (in fact, there is no Christian lyricist that has written at such a high level for as long- not even Larry Norman). As I said in my tribute to David Bazan, Bill is a mini-novelist with a guitar, more in line with Welty, O'Connor, Percy and Faulkner than with today's musicians. He deserves a class in contemporary Southern Literature (yet, Oxford American has pretty much ignored him).
Bill has been on the verge of stardom more times than anyone can count, named among the greatest living songwriters in Paste, had great reviews in Rolling Stone, opening for a number of huge acts, signing major label contracts and having albums produced by big name producers. However, he has not gotten his due. While Sufjan Stevens and David Bazan, among others owe him great thanks for paving the way for their mix of the sacred and secular, it was not easy in the 90s for a musician not named Bono to stake that middle ground. While Derek Webb has a career doing exactly what Bill did, Bill struggles to find gigs. What is becoming commonplace for today's singers would not pay the bills in the past.
He is to the Emergent conversation and Emerging musicians the professor that got canned for expressing ideas that have now become the norm in seminaries. He wrote the books that influenced the books we all buy (musically speaking). Today's leaders can have an easier ride, content that they did this all on their own, forgetting about those that led the way, opened the doors and now struggle to get their music or ideas in the public, while they enjoy the free coffee, nice hotels, positive reviews, good book sales and health insurance paid for in blood and sweat by their forefathers (does anyone know if a Rob Bell type has ever had Bill play at Mars Hill?).
Do yourself a favor and listen to Bill. You can download it from him and he gets all the proceeds. You can invite him to your church, home or favorite bar. You can let him lead a seminar at your next event (he is a dynamic speaker and smart as a whip).
He may not be the official band of Emergent. But, we owe much to him. He is one of our fathers, like Brian McLaren, if people had ignored the beauty of his books only read Rob Bell and Donald Miller's latest. So, please take the time.
I will finish Emergent Idol next week, counting down the Top 3. Based upon who I have selected (U2 is off the table), anyone have any ideas of the Top 3? I would give a prize to the person that guesses correctly, but I have nothing of value. I know, you can have a signed copy of my first book. However, you should give me some forwarding addresses, including the nursing home/ hospice you plan on finishing your days at.
It is a weak Friday at Amazon. The only $5 deal worthwhile is Prince's Controversy. It is not in his top 5, but does give you an idea of what would come next (pre-1999). I remember hearing it at a friend's house. We closed the door to his bedroom because we did not want his parents to hear the lyrics.
KT Tunstall is okay and her second album, Drastic Fantastic is $5 if you are into that.
The real deal of the day is Neko Case's wonderful alt-country album Fox Confessor Brings the Flood for only $2.99. If you are a fan of Lucinda Williams, Loretta Lynn, Jenny Lewis, Gillian Welch or Emmylou Harris you must have this album. One listen to Margaret vs. Pauline and you will be hooked. She is getting lots of praise for her latest solid album, but this is slightly better.
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Kristi and I have a great date night planned for tonight, Ben Folds in a fairly intimate setting. It should be a blast. This will be my 5th show and Kristi's 2nd. Our 1st full fledged date night after our first child's birth was a Ben Folds show in Boston (he recorded and filmed much of his live album there).
Lastly, U2 tix go on sale Monday. We are still deciding what to do. Tickets are between $30 (for crap) and $250. The $55 tickets are for general admission on the floor. I would like to do that, even if I am too old and decrepit to stand for a bunch of hours in a stadium. I attended the Tampa Stadium show in December 1988 and stood on the floor, so I think I want to relived my early days and do it again.
OK. After a little immature humor, back to the real list....
Radiohead is not the official band of Emergent, which may surprise some readers. No, like U2, they are too big for such a designation. While many Christians that consider themselves emerging love and identify with Radiohead, I think that is because those Christians identify with something bigger than that, The Great Emergence in Phyllis Tickle's vernacular. In fact, Radiohead could be considered the official band of the Great Emergence (social movement, especially the European/ Anglo version). However, I also designate them the official band of postmodernity and deconstruction (as in Derrida). This encompasses the spiritual and non-spiritual elements within this social movement (they have been designated the official bad of the Prozac Nation).
Radiohead's musical history is a fascinating example of postmodern deconstruction, emergence and reconstruction of a new mythos. In fact, I would challenge those that consider themselves emerging or emerged from traditional Evangelical, fundamentalist or mainline Christianity to think of themselves and their faith as I talk about the band.
It reminds me of the words of a philosophy of religion professor I had in grad school. Dr. Keith Putt told us at the beginning of our first session that his goal was to dump out all of our Lincoln logs which had been carefully arranged by our parents and churches. The dumping would be difficult, but eventually we could rebuild something better. This is Radiohead's approach to popular music and culture.
Radiohead began as a bunch of smart British kids doing post-Nirvana British Rock with elements of grunge and pop. While Pablo Honey was fairly mainstream, its lead single Creep had an edge. It was somewhat otherworldly and dealt with the singer's place in this world he did not understand. Of course, that intriguing song and album did not prepare anyone for The Bends, a masterpiece of pop perfection punctuated by deconstructive elements, especially lyrically. It was the warning shot that Radiohead had a different idea of what pop music is. While stunningly beautiful (it is the Buddha at which Coldplay, Keane, Snow Patrol, The Fray and countless other bands genuflect and try to recreate), the lyrics told a different story, one in which humanity is being lost in the midst of rampant, hyper-modernity, consumerism and technology (it, along with Adbusters opened me to this reality long before any Christian spoke of it). Fake Plastic Trees, the highlight of the album and the best song of the 90s, is a simple pop song, unlike any pop song ever written or sung and, along with My Iron Lung, a harbinger of what comes next, OK Computer, the seminal album of the decade.
Lyrically and musically, OK Computer is a deconstruction of everything modern culture and popular music stand for, while still maintaining the basic structure. It is a world in which religion has been rendered dead and people no longer control their own fates. It is not darkness on the edge of town. The darkness has wrapped itself around city hall and main street. There is little hope, even in the beautiful things. In this album Radiohead decides they have a new vision for pop music, but they have more deconstruction to do before they know what it is or reveal it.
This leads to complete deconstruction of the popular song structure, while still maintaining singability and melody on the albums Kid A and Amnesiac. These albums remind me of Miles Davis' most radical work channeled through guitars, machines and distortion. Gone are things like the verse-chorus, refrain, bridge (some songs are one long bridge to nowhere) and traditional chord progressions. Pop music has been broken for a long time, like modern culture, and Radiohead has chosen to take an axe to it, so it can be saved.
The salvation and creation of a new form of popular music comes on the criminally underrated and massively misunderstood Hail to the Thief, in which structure and chord progression is reintroduced and hope is reengaged for humanity and culture, but only in glimpses.
This us brings us to reconstruction and the hope of emergence, manifested in the engaging, fun, positive, hopeful and just short of perfect In Rainbows. With In Rainbows, Radiohead has not only recreated itself with its eyes on the long gone past of The Bends (Rainbows is a pretty album with pop songs), the deconstruction of the late 90s/ early 2000s and a totally new sound encompassing all of this along with a vision of tomorrow that can be a blueprint for Christians as they break down the spirituality, ecclesiology, theology and politics that hampered their lives, only to reemerge on the other side ready for growth in a new world that lives in the tension of their past and future.
Not only that, but Radiohead has broken with the traditional form of capitalism and trading of goods and services that it railed against on early albums by creating a new model of commerce between artist and audience, something the Emerging Church must learn from and model. It is one thing to deconstruct and complain, it is quite another to rebuilt as Radiohead has.
Radiohead is not the band of Emergent. It is the band of Emergence.
I am tired of doing this daily, so I will just run through the rest of Emergent Idol's Top 10 today. I start with #5 because the U2 post was a bit premature.
#5 John Mayer- The earnestness of Emergent must be taken seriously. I think this artist has done much to show that men can be sensitive to the needs of women and allow them to lead. He has shown that talent alone does not make an artist, one needs that sensitivity to give the people what they want... what they need in fact. While some would call this chickified, what is wrong with that? So what if John Mayer, and Emergent, is led by chickified men. John Mayer has proven that people will listen and buy what you sell them, if it is in a pretty package, has lyrics which move you and waters down the historical music he loves (blues for him/ atonement for Emergent).
#4 Indigo Girls- yes critics you were right about Emergent. It is pushing a GLBT agenda of Liberal Christianity led by women (it is even worse than being chickified and girly). It is also overly earnest and obsessed with its own pain and suffering at the hands of its oppressors. At least we got that out of the way. Even though "there's not enough room in this world for my pain" and it cannot be solved by a solitary folk singer, it can be solved by 2 womyn with guitars.
#3 Eminem- Emergent is angry. It has a band mouth. It is led by a bunch of upper middle class white males that want to embrace and share the creation of non-whites (African, Liberation theology for EV and rap for Eminen. It wants to offend people. Worst of all, it sounds really cool to the younger generation and will corrupt them, especially when it embraces Elton John's agenda.
#2 (TIE) Korn and Marilyn Manson- Even angrier than Eminem, these bands make no bones about their disdain for religious norms and morays. They deconstruct music, mix dangerous ideas and musical forms that should not be mixed into a cacophony of mixed metaphors, noise and
garbage. Too many young people find them appealing, so they must be stopped, or copied, but with better theology and worse hair and music, so kids do not need to to discern for themselves. Thank God for CCM and relevant churches which can take all the forms and make them palatable to a safe audience. Plus, these artists ruin good old classic songs, much like Emerging Christians do with their updates of hymns.
#1 Carmen- a master story teller, one that can take a tiny bit of Scripture and turn it into a narrative using the prophetic imagination, just like Walter Brueggemann taught us. He is believes strongly in narrative forms of preaching and does not let systematic theology or creedal statements get in the way of what he feels compelled to share. He may be dismissed by his critics, but his strong Christological message shines through his songs. plus, he totally could have won American Idol if it had been around in his day.
Do not think me gentle because I speak in praise of gentleness, or elegant because I honor the grace that keeps this world. I am a man crude as any, gross of speech, intolerant, stubborn, angry, full of fits and furies. That I may have spoken well at times, is not natural. A wonder is what it is.- Wendell Berry
Trouble-Maker, Rabble-Rouser and Nice-Guy (former church planter/ urban missionary).
I am married. I am father of 3 kids with multiple middle names, usually after Saints, Musicians or Southern Novelists (the same thing). We have a dog named after a singer.
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