Protholic? Catestant? How Worship is blurring the lines between Catholicism and Protestantism and unifying the body of Christ.

I have had the priviledge of growing up in a denominationally diverse household, where my father came from a Plymouth Bretheren background (not to different then Quaker) and my mother from a Roman Catholic one, while they raised me in a Charismatic Church. Even though I was raised in a Charismatic Church, I was able to hear and see for myself the spiritual heritage of my parents. As I grew older, and experienced more, I quickly realized that outside my house there was a giant chasm between Catholics and Protestants. It was hard for me to understand why two groups who claimed to follow the one true God and his son Jesus the Christ could see each other as complete aliens. I truly believe that diversity is essential to the universal appeal of the body of Christ, but I also believe that isolation and ignorance between members in that body only hurts God.

Its been my assertion on this blog, and anywhere I talk about Worship, that Worship music is a unifying force in the world wide body of Christ. Worship music breaks down walls and focuses our attention on the fact that God is worthy of our Praise and off the incidentals of Church tradition. The best example of this is in the current Worship trends in the Catholic Church and the Emerging Church of Protestantism.

While there will alway be fundamental style differences in Church services, we are beginning to see the influences of these 'brides of Christ' on each other in Worship. Some Catholic Churches have been using Modern Worship songs, complete with Guitars and amplifiers, in thier services while some Emerging Church services are focusing on Liturgical worship. At the forefront of these blurring lines is the Taize movement in the countryside of France, where Christian (both Protestant and Catholic) young people from around the world are coming together to Worship and seek God.

While we have a long way to go, and some of the older generations might no be able to make the transition, we are moving in a direction of unity between Catholics and Protestants, and when all is said and done Worship music will have had no small part.

New Catholic trends in Worship look very similar to Protestant styles

New Protestant trends in Worship look very similar to Catholic styles

More about Taize

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Worship with Swicki (its not a band)

At Doxas my job is to help develop on-line tools for Worshipers and Worship Leaders from all walks of life and from every culture. We work hard to understand Worship Leaders and Worship Musicians needs and then create some sort of solution for them on-line. Sometimes we build applications from scratch, and other times we adapt existing technology for the worship community. Recently we stumbled across a really unique application,called a Swicki, that allows any community to 'train' its customizable search engine to find the most relevant resources for that community. We realized that this would be great for searching through the diverse and ecclectic Worship resources scattered across the Internet (think Google for Worship Music)

(if technical mumbo jumbo bores you then you can just click here).

"Sometimes, looking for specific information has that needle in a haystack feeling. Not only can you get millions of results from a simple query, the most relevant data for you can be buried way down the list. Swickis let you slice and dice and customize your search engine query for other users so that you can specify the most relevant sources. The swicki further refines the results once like-minded users start engaging with it. Every click refines the swicki's search strings, creating a responsive, dynamic result that's both customized and highly relevant." eurekster.com

Check Out the Worship Music Swicki

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C.S. Lewis on Worship Music

With books like 'The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe', 'The Great Divorce' and 'Mere Christianity' on his CV, C.S. Lewis has become a fundamental pillar on Christian thought. While I could sing his praises all day, I think he would prefer if I focused on someone more important then himself. In this excerpt Lewis refers to 'levels' of Worship and why it is so joyful to sing Praises to God. Its a little dense but well worth finnishing.

"It seems to me that we must define rather carefully the way, or ways, in which music can glorify God. There is … a sense in which all natural agents, even inanimate ones, glorify God continually by revealing the powers He has given them. And in that sense we, as natural agents, do the same. On that level our wicked actions, in so far as they exhibit our skill and strength, may be said to glorify Good, as well as our good actions. An excellently performed piece of music, as natural operation which reveals in a very high degree the peculiar powers given to man, will thus always glorify God whatever the intention of the performers may be. But that is a kind of glorifying which we share with the ‘dragons and great deeps’, with the ‘frost and snows’. What is looked for in us, as men, is another kind of glorifying, which depends on intention. How easy or how hard it may be for a whole choir to preserve that intention through all the discussions and decisions, all the corrections and the disappointments, all the temptations to pride, rivalry and ambition, which precede the performance of a great work, I (naturally) do not know. But it is on the intention that all depends. When it succeeds, I think the performers are the most enviable of men; privileged while mortals to honor God like angels and, for a few golden moments, to see spirit and flesh, delight and labour, skill and worship, the natural and the supernatural, all fused into that unity they would have had before the Fall"
From an essay entitled "On Church Music" by C. S. Lewis.

C.S. Lewis on Worship
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Time to Talk

Well, it was only a matter of time. The first Doxas Podcast. It might seem kind of trendy to do a Podcast these days, but no one is really doing one about Worship music across the world. Our friends over at Club Worship helped us set this 'trial' Podcast up. Let us know what you think (leave a comment below). If ya'll like it we'll keep doing it. Looking forward to hearing from you.

"Podcasting is the distribution of audio or video files, such as radio programs or music videos, over the Internet using either RSS or Atom syndication for listening on mobile devices and personal computers. A podcast is a web feed of audio or video files placed on the Internet for anyone to download or subscribe to. Podcasters' websites also may offer direct download of their files, but the subscription feed of automatically delivered new content is what distinguishes a podcast from a simple download or real-time streaming. Usually, the podcast features one type of "show" with new episodes either sporadically or at planned intervals such as daily, weekly, etc. In addition to this, there are podcast networks that feature multiple shows on the same feed." (Wikipedia.org)

Doxas Universe Podcast

The Ergonomics of Worship

By Jon Carlson of Club Worship

When I'm not throwin' down at Club Worship, most of my waking hours are spent at my day job, as Production Manager of a Christian television station. Recently, we redesigned and rewired our video editing suite. One of the main reasons we did was to create a more ergonomic working environment. (Design factors, as for the workplace, intended to maximize productivity by minimizing operator fatigue and discomfort.) We lowered the desk height, replaced the chair, added new lighting, and brought the computer monitors down to eye level. All this was done for one purpose: to make the working environment as conducive to the task at hand as possible. Overall, I think we succeeded. Now, you may be asking, what in the world does this have to do with worship?

Have you ever thought about how the environment you worship in shapes how you worship? Maybe you attend a church with pews (like I do.) Maybe your church has those nifty stackable chairs. Or maybe you worship in a house church, sunk down deep in your La-Z-Boy. Where ever you worship communally, the ergonomics of the environment will, in some ways, shape your worship.

Think about this: there are two common words in the Bible that have been translated "worship." One means "to bow down," the other is a Greek word, proskuneo, which means, "to kiss towards." Both of those are physically active words, but maybe the environments we worship in aren't conducive to those actions.

That's part of why I love worship in a club environment: we have an ergonomic setting that allows people to bow down, to dance, to spin, to become "undignified" (to borrow King David's term.) Worship leaders have freedom to bring people together in a prayer circle, to have people form small groups to pray for each other, to call people to their knees. There's nothing in the design of the room that's holding people back.

Now, I understand that pews and chairs serve a purpose. In my church, many people (myself included) viewed the way we got our "new-to-us" pews as God's hand of provision and blessing. It's important to have a place to sit for a sermon (if you've ever spent 45 minutes on the floor, trying to pay attention, you know how hard it is.)

But there's something special about a wide open space where people's "hearts scream 'I Am Free!' I am free to run/I am free to dance/I am free to live for you."

Pics of Worship ergonomics in Progress

Randy does Amazing

Here's a little treat for your weekend. Randy Travis and the original author of the most famous hymn, John Newton, share a similar path. Both spent thier younger days oblivious of God's love, both did what they wanted when they wanted, and both ultimately gave in to his Amazing Grace. Randy's down home country twang adds new flavor to this familiar hymn while giving a glimpse into his personal trail of hard knocks and 'character development'. His story is worth checking out. Enjoy.
Amazing Grace by Randy Travis
Randy's Story
(There is a small download in order to hear the song, but its worth it.)

Meet Chris

For those of you who have seen the name 'Chris Tomlin' in the CCLI licensing tags during your Sunday morning Worship service, but have no idea who is, here is your chance. Meet Chris:

Quick Click Monday 3/13/06

Going back to the heart of Worship
8 Articles from 8 Worship Leaders
You should be longing to Worship with the Longing

Best of Breeds

Image provided by BEC Recordings

For those of us who interact with Worship music and Worship musicians on a daily basis we forget how special these men and women are. So once in awhile it's good to celebrate them as the special breed of musician that they have chosen to be. Here's an example of what I'm talking about:

"Although he appreciates the accolades he has received, (Jeremy)Camp says that awards, gold records and No. 1 singles are not what motivate him to do what he does.
'It's neat and it's encouraging, but it's not what I strive for,' he says. 'It's an extra blessing. God has opened the door for me to minister to people and to reach out. It is just an added blessing, is all it is. If I didn't have those awards, it wouldn't make me feel any different.'" South Bend Tribune

We salute you Jeremy, and Chris, and David, and Jon, and Darlene, and Michael, and Ron, and all the other Worship leaders who humbly pursue God and ministering to his people over fame and fortune.

Jeremy Camp Article

DJ Led Worship

I've loved Worship since the first time I learned how to sing 'Jesus Loves Me' in Sunday School. As I got older my passion grew and I started to entertain the idea of becoming a Worship Leader. It seemed that I had a special sensitivity for picking the perfect songs for ministering and the right personality for leading in Worship. Only problem was that when I would sing small children would cry and my ADD tendencies allowed me to practice the guitar and piano for all of thirty seconds. So I let the idea of leading Worship fade away, focusing on my other spiritual gifts.

But now I might have a second chance. With the introduction of the I-pod and other digital music devices its now possible to DJ a Worship Service.

"DJ led worship is using turn tables or CD players to lead people into the presense of God with pre-recorded music . . . Dj led worship can be in any style of music whatsoever. If you can play it on an CD player, mp3 device, anything; you can Worship ."
-Club Worship Podcast

Dj led Worship has a ton of advantages. Now small churches with small budgets can have the highest quality Worship music, the emphasis of the Worship can be taken off the performance and solely on God, more people can participate on the Worship team, and it ultimately saves time. Now I'm not suggesting that live Worship bands and Worship leaders are going anywhere, but with the proliferation of technology and its increasing acceptance don't be surprised if you see Dj led Worship in your church.

Club Worship Podcast

Jesus Walks in Worship

I'll be the first to admit that Kanye's super hit "Jesus Walks" gets me up on my feet. Unfortunately not all of Kanye's music has some of the spiritual redemption that this song does. I had kind of written the song off as his passing homage to childhood influences when I heard of an interview on NPR about the original version of the song created and performed by the ARC (Addicts Rehabilitation Center) Gospel Choir.

"James Allen is the 81-year-old director of the Addicts Rehabilitation Center in Harlem. He founded the center in 1957 after he kicked his own habit. Soon after he founded the center in 1957 -- after kicking his own habit -- Allen founded the a-cappella Addicts Rehabilitation Center Gospel Choir (ARC)." NPR.org

The Choir brings their music alive with Character and pure passion for what their singing. Its beautiful and heart felt Worship music. Check it Out below.

ARC Choir
Audio Interview on NPR

I just wanted to share this inspiring blurb from the pre-face of The Mennonite Hymnal

Moreover, this stream of music is as something alive, discarding the unusable, adaptive to new circumstances, creative in meeting needs as they may exist. Church music has not been contained in rigid, unyielding forms or patterns, but in different ways has supplied musical expression for the church in its developing life and worship. Hymnology, too, as a significant part of the musical heritage of the church, has not been locked in the closed canon of an ancient and unchanging tradition, but has been alive and growing, dynamically ministering to a living and growing Christendom