E*B final blog post (Essentials Blue)

For: The Institute of Contemporary and Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen’s University, Essentials Blue Online Worship Theology Course with Dan Wilt.

So Essentials Blue is now over…

I had no idea what to expect when I signed up for this course but I am very glad I did. It’s been a lot of work but it has really challenged my own theology and made me think about a lot of stuff I’d never really considered before. I especially liked preparing my Christian worldview. We’re told in the scriptures to “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.” (1 Peter 3 vs 15 NIV) and this has helped clarify in my mind what my answer should be. Just setting out on paper as it were, a concise statement like this has helped me understand more of what I believe! I’ve tended to go along knowing that Bible is true and that Christ did die for us to forgive our sins but beyond that it’s all been a bit vague in my mind.

Now I better go and re-introduce myself to my wife again as she hasn’t seen much of me in the last 5 weeks! The other halves of us who are doing the course from Almond Vineyard have taken to calling themselves the Course Widows… God bless them all for their patience!

See you in Essentials Red in a few months.

He’s the only one – my creative project (Essentials Blue)

For: The Institute of Contemporary and Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen’s University, Essentials Blue Online Worship Theology Course with Dan Wilt.

For my final creative project I went with an original contemporary worship song.  Apologies for the quality – I recorded it on my little 2GB Sansa MP3 player’s voice recorder!

I wasn’t sure I was going to do this as I’ve never been much good at lyrics.  I can pick up a guitar and come up with different tunes easily enough but the words have always escaped me.  When I was thinking about this though, I was reflecting on the sort of worship songs we sing at the Vineyard and realised that most of them are short and simple, focusing on a particular theme, cutting straight to the point  and they are amazingly powerful for all that.  I kept my song very simple too and this seemed to help.

The theological concept I’ve focused on for my creative project is that of God as Saviour.  Every one of us is made in the image of God and we are reflections of Him.  But through our sin, our choice of individuality over community with God, we have broken these reflections.  There’s no turning back from that absolute decision Humanity as a whole has made.  That is until God gets involved.  He doesn’t want to let us go and He reaches out to us in pure unsullied love and offers us hope…

I’ve based the bridge on Psalm 80 vs 3 – “Restore us O God; make Your face shine upon us, that we might be saved.” (NIV).  It all comes from God – He reaches out to us, He gives us the way to return to Him through Jesus Christ.

What a love He bears for us…

You’re the only one lyrics

You’re the only one mp3

A Christian Worldview (Essentials Blue)

For: The Institute of Contemporary and Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen’s University, Essentials Blue Online Worship Theology Course with Dan Wilt.

Our God is the great creator. Every time you gaze up at the stars in the unfathomable depths of space, or listen to the symphony of the crashing waves breaking along a beach, this is His work. But despite the beauty of the natural world, it is us humans who are the crown of God’s creation. “For all of this, it is once again to the scriptures that we turn, listening for God’s declarations about His treasure, the crowning flower of the cosmic order – His human children.” [1] He has given us responsibility to look after His great work. To “Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.” [2] Our purpose is to be the caretakers of this glorious construction and by doing what He made us to do, we bring the worship of all creation to the only one who is worthy to be worshipped.

He made us to be in community with Him – to love Him, to enjoy Him and enjoy the world He gave us. Yet God doesn’t want mindless drones just following instructions. He gave us the gift of freewill and His desire is that we would choose of our own volition to live in relationship with Him. However Man chose his own individuality over God’s perfect community and shattered the proper order of the universe. This could and should have been the end of it for the human race, but “God is the kind of Person who will not step away from the brokenness in His own work of art.” [3] He chases us, establishes covenants with many different fallen, imperfect humans and simply loves us as our Father. He promises us that he will send someone who will once and for all fix the mess we’ve made of things and allow us to be restored to our Father and God. This was accomplished by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, God in human flesh, who took responsibility for our sin and suffered judgement in place of us. “At that moment the curtain in the sanctuary of the Temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. The earth shook, rocks split apart,” [4] This was the moment when God’s Kingdom burst onto earth.

Jesus was raised from the dead three days later. The torn curtain shows us that anyone can now access God through Jesus Christ. As Wright says, “Something has happened in and through Jesus as a result of which the world is a different place, a place where Heaven and Earth have been joined forever.” [5] As followers of Christ, restored image-bearers of God, we are given the precious gift of the Holy Spirit – God Himself dwelling within us. We become one of these places where Heaven and Earth overlap. Our job then is simply to live, guided by the Spirit, taking the Kingdom of God wherever we go until God puts His masterpiece right. And finally, “the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.” [6]

[1] Dan Wilt, Online Studies in Worship Theology and Biblical Worldview, p.27
[2] Genesis 1:28 (NLT)
[3] Dan Wilt, Online Studies in Worship Theology and Biblical Worldview, p.19
[4] Matthew 27:51 (NLT)
[5] Tom Wright, Simply Christian (SPCK, 2006), P 100
[6] Isaiah 11:9 (NIV)

An island of light in the deep darkness (Essentials Blue)

For: The Institute of Contemporary and Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen’s University, Essentials Blue Online Worship Theology Course with Dan Wilt.

So post 3 done…well that was a tough one this week!  I’ve had real trouble this time though mostly cause I’ve been too easily distracted.  Must focus better next week!

I just wanted to expand on an image I used in the relational being / community part of the post:  The picture I got was of us humans flailing around in a deep empty darkness after choosing sin and our individuality over God and perfect relationship with Him.  We know we miss God’s light and that we’re lost but even though we can see it shining faintly over our shoulder we’re unwilling or perhaps unable to turn back towards it and most of the time try to pretend it’s not there.  I saw the Church, God’s Kingdom community on Earth, as islands of reflected light in the dark pool around us.  And although these reflections of light were as a candle compared to the full naked glory of the sun (or indeed Son),  they were beacons of hope reaching out to people  who were desperately lost and alone.  I believe this is one of the primary purposes of any Christian Church – to reach out to the people God has placed around it and help them to acknowledge the light.

Whether they choose to turn round and walk back into the light is of course out of our hands, only our Lord can change the hearts and minds of His children.

At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split. Matthew 27 v51 (Essentials Blue)

For: The Institute of Contemporary and Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen’s University, Essentials Blue Online Worship Theology Course with Dan Wilt.

…and so the Kingdom of God came bursting onto Earth…

Well week two is just about over and it’s certainly been an educating week for me!  My perception of the Kingdom of God and Heaven have definately been challenged and shaped by this section of Tom Wright’s Simply Christian.  I had always bought into the view that all who had accepted Jesus as Saviour would be off to the great castle in the sky where everything is white and shiny and made of marble!  Wright puts forward that this is not so and that in fact, Heaven or the Kingdom of God will be our world as it was originally meant to be before our sin caused everything to be cursed.  Can you imagine, God’s perfect creation restored and us in eternal relationship with Him?

Outside of the course, this week’s been a bit unsettling.  At work we got a surprise meeting sprung on the whole dept on Tuesday afternoon in which they announced that 85 – 135 jobs would be lost from the 365 in the dept…  I thank the Lord that mine is safe but I can’t help but feel for the hundreds who have now been told their job is ‘at risk’.

Tonight at housegroup was the first time I got to lead worship since I started the course so it was great to get to put some of the thoughts and theology we’ve been forming and learning into action.  I put a lot more effort into the set than usual (normally I’m cobbling it together late on the night before!) and promise to do so from now on!

I pray that our music and words were, and always will be, a pleasing and acceptable offering to God.

Sonar is all about echoes too… (Essentials Blue)

For: The Institute of Contemporary and Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen’s University, Essentials Blue Online Worship Theology Course with Dan Wilt.

So, week 1 is just about over…  It’s been both harder and easier than I thought!  I enjoyed all the reading and was really interested to see everyone’s responses to Will’s question.   When I read about the echo of beauty my very first thought was scuba diving!  We’ve only explored somewhere between 1 – 5% of the oceans of the world (did a bit of research on Google and all answers were in this range) so just imagine how much more of God’s amazing creations are yet to be discovered under the Deep Blue living out their existence, worshipping Him just by being what He created them to be.

I’ve been thinking, or God isn’t just a creator of things but of situations too.  Let me explain what I mean:

When I think through the chain of events that led to my wife Laura and I coming to the Vineyard (just one example of many) it’s so clear that God can not only sculpt trees, continents, planents and galaxies but that He can creatively set up a series of opportunities and revelations of himself that all come at just the right time to lead us to where he wants us to be.

The short story is that I was always very unsure and wary of Spiritual Gifts having never had any experience of them in the church I grew up in (although to Laura it was all perfectly normal and natural).  God threw me in at the deep end as it were by putting us in a very very Charismatic (as I understand the term anyway…) Elim church for a year where I was basically completely surrounded by many extreme examples of speaking in tongues, prophecy, people being slain in the spirit etc.  All stuff I had never seen before.  God knows me and He knows that’s how I learn best – by just chucking me in and immersing me in something.  This got me to realise that there was nothing weird or wrong about spiritual gifts.  He eventually led us to the Almond Vineyard where things are definately a lot calmer but where every week the Holy Spirit moves and works and amazing things happen.  I remember by the end of the first service, it felt like we’d come home and I know that if I hadn’t had my training camp experience in the Elim, this wouldn’t have been the case – it would have all been too strange and even scary for me.

God set up opportunities and relationships for us and revealed new things about Himself at just the right time to bring me to the place where I would be ready to join the Vineyard, where I know He wants me to be right now.

Thank you God for persevering with me and loving me enough to take the time to set up the huge chain of events to bring me to where you want me to be!

You can never find a good plumber willing to work in a volcanic lair… (Essentials Blue)

For: The Institute of Contemporary and Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen’s University, Essentials Blue Online Worship Theology Course with Dan Wilt.

Hmmm, so I finally have one of these Blog thingies…  Been avoiding all this online social stuff for ages but I suppose now is as good a time as any to inform everyone of my plans for world domination.  It involves volcanic lairs, slightly dumb henchmen and of course cats.  Can’t have a good go at taking over the world without a cat according to Holywood (and of course, they’re always right…ahem).  Insert deep, melodramatic, slightly crazy laugh here.

I’m Fraser by the way and I’m one of the guitarists for our VKids Sunday school worship.  I also lead our housegroup worship along with Willie (also doing the course).

Anyway, looking forward to this Essentials course.  I’ve never sone anything like this before (what with trying to find the plumber and making do with leaky pipes.  Volcano heated water scolds let me tell you!).

My wife (the very gorgeous Laura) is currently reading this over my shoulder and shaking her head in despair.  Can’t think why…

Where was I now…Yes, volcanoes…sorry Laura…I mean the Essentials course.  Looking forward to what God will teach us over the next few weeks.  To my shame I’ve not been listening to God for a long time and have only started getting back into the Bible in the last few months thanks to the housegroup, repeated conviction from the Holy Spirit and constant prayer from my lovely lady.  Can’t believe I ever stopped reading it!  God’s word is amazing and it feels like I’ve been led out of a desert to an endless freshwater lake.

*Ouch* got to go, one of those pipes has gone again!  Looking forward to getting to know you all!