Album Review: Jared Anderson - Where Faith Comes From

This is not so much a review as it is me telling you to go to iTunes and download this album. Every song on it is incredible. The lyrics are raw and honest and the melodies are powerful. It's what Ben Folds would sound like if he put out a "worship" album.

Track 1, Promises, will definitely be integrated into my upcoming sets. This Is Life, track 7, is a song that everyone needs to hear with it's poignant statement that "this is life and it's hell if you only live for yourself."  

I could go on about the entire album, but you should just head over to his myspace and check it out yourself.

Music Worship without Interuption

Tonight at 24.7, we had an entire night of musical worship. No message, just 10 songs, an offering and some closing announcements. It has been a long time since I have been able to lead an entire hour of music. I really miss it.

Music creates such an instant connection. You say something over and over again and people won't get it, but put it in a song and somehow information transforms. "Conjunction Junction what's your function? Hooking up words and phrases and clauses..." communicates so much better than "an uninflected function word that serves to conjoin words or phrases or clauses or sentences." It's so easy to say or instruct "surrender everything to God" but when you sing "Jesus, I surrender" it somehow penetrates the soul. That's because for most people, singing is honest. It is hard to sincerely sing without being sincere. We can lie in prose, but somehow melody forces us to tell the truth.

Tonight there were students kneeling and crying out to God. Sincere prayers that were not coaxed or prodded - there was no come to Jesus speech. The spirit of God used the music to move them. I could hardly hold back tears as I tried to sing. It was incredible. It was also tiring.

After a 10 song set, I am completely exhausted. There is something about crying out at the top of your lungs that will wear you out. It is a special exhaustion that is brought on by worship. Not just worship in the form of music either, but most forms.

I worked construction for many years with my father and would often come home exhausted; however, my exhaustion was mainly physical, sometimes mental, but my spirit never felt the impact. It was like there was something inside of me that wanted to "do more" even though my body could not handle it. I have also worshiped through construction. Various missions or church projects have given me more than my share of days doing manual labor and somehow the exhaustion from those days is different. At the end of those days when you rest it is like you are really resting. Your whole self is on the same page and sleep feels good.

I know that sounds weird, but for me, sleep doesn't always feel good. It does not hurt or anything, but it takes me a while to fall asleep at night. My mind, my spirit, tend to keep me up as they wander through my day and my future. I find myself asking, "Why do I need to sleep? There is so much more to do." So sleep becomes less rest and more a "if I don't do this I'll die" thing.

But tonight, I do not think I will have trouble sleeping. You see, I don't have to think about the day or the future. By exhausting myself through worship, I have fulfilled my day. There is nothing better that I could have done with my day. As for tomorrow, who worries about tomorrow when they had such a great today?

What if in Mathew 6 when Jesus says "do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own", he wasn't telling us not to worry as much as he was telling us to make today count.

Worry that tomorrow could be like today? On a day where you feel you have completely fulfilled your destiny, you do not worry, instead you have hope of seeing another day of the same.

Perhaps this is why the bible says that the true act of worship is to present our bodies as a living sacrifice. (Rom 12:1) Whether through song, justice or whatever God has called you to do, when you have pushed your body to exhaustion through worship it is worship in the truest form.

Easter - Wow!

It was three days ago, but I'm still excited.

Somehow holiday's have become so blah. When I was a kid, I couldn't wait for the next holiday. It was like I lived from seasonal moment to moment and everyday in between was just filler.

Now as a worship pastor, holidays mean I have more work to do. Learning seasonal songs that we'll only sing once or twice, making sure everything is "perfect" because you know attendance will be up and maybe if we pull out all the stops people who only come twice a year might start coming once a month. Then there are holiday expectations; we must do such and such with so and so. It's like the real holiday comes the day after when you can finally breath.

This year is so different. The Easter service was good, but it wasn't about that. I feel like the music was tight and sure, lot's of people showed up, but that is to be expected. This Easter was so incredible because I have such a different outlook.

I realize more and more everyday that I am a horrible person. My friends probably wouldn't agree and my family is split 50-50, but the more I look at it, I really am. The thoughts that come into my mind and sometime leave my lips, the things I don't do, the people I don't really care about, the commitments I break, the time I don't spend on things that matter; it's a staggering list.

But Jesus took care of it all. Every single bit.

The psalmists would of often write the phrase "selah" into their poems to indicate a time to pause and reflect. For me it is like a silent "WOW!" As I write that I can't help but have an extended selah moment.

Jesus took care of it all. There is nothing that I can do.

It is amazing how the most revolutionary event in all of history can become mundane. God help us remember.

"Just write already."

The problem is I want this first post to be grandiose. It needs to be the epic tome that shapes the future of all things that I write here. But before I can write the greatest first blog post ever, I need the greatest blog name ever. Everyone knows that titles are everything. You can write the most prolific piece of literature known to western civilization, but unless you have the title to match it – no one will ever read it. Even before the title, I need to choose a blogging platform. Where shall I post this? Shall I self host? Oh and what about the design? And what about....

And so went many weeks’ worth of excuses. My aspirations were great, but my actions were non-existant. I think many people suffer from this problem. We dream larger-than-life and allow the shear size of our dreams to overwhelm us to the point of non-action.

“Just write already.”

In all reality this blog isn’t about the writing. And while the title could be better, it couldn’t be clearer.

Worship + Justice.

There is one thing that excites me over any other. That is the worship of Yahweh-God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. For me a great portion of that worship occurs while leading my local church in music. And that is the first purpose of this blog. To discuss, present new ideas and share frustrations about “worship leading” in a local church.

While worship is about music; It is not just about music. It is about art and personal expression and enjoying the life God gave us and everything else that we say or do.

In that everything, there is one thing that I continually find rising to the top and thus the second point and third word in the title of this blog – justice.

Justice has become trendy. Thank God that it has. If it weren’t for rock star activists and post-modern pastors, I might not know the first thing about justice. Bono taught me about the AIDS crisis and extreme poverty in Africa and Rob Bell taught me about the need for clean water sources. God taught me how to love.

When you love God, you must love others. The greatest command is to “love the Lord, your God, with all your heart and soul and mind and strength and to love your neighbour as yourself.” It is impossible to separate the two. While love of God and others are the commands, it is by worship of God and acting out justice towards others that this command comes alive.

In this space, I set out to be very practical. I’ll talk about what I’m doing in my local church with my worship teams to make our corporate worship experience the best that we can and I will talk about what I am personally doing and encouraging others to do in order to live out the mandate of justice that I believe cannot be separated from worship.

I realize that I’m not the first to write about such things; I most certainly will not be the most influential. In fact, many of my ideas will not even be original, but that’s ok at least I’ve started writing.