If you want to see the latest family pictures you can browse through our shared Cedarhome Family Photoalbum there.
Calling all amateur photographers:
If you have taken pictures of Cedarhome family events and want to share them with the group, set up a free flickr account, join our group and then send an email to jason and we will authorize you to share your pictures with the rest of the family! Or just email us the pictures or get us a disc and we will upload them to the site.
We had a spectacular prayer meeting on Saturday Night, Feb 21st. Despite the freezing cold and dark, we had 60+ people. I am so glad that we were able to have our very first meeting be a prayer meeting!
My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations —Mark 11:17
Thanks to all for coming out! Hope to see all of you and more at our next prayer meeting!
I was reading through the ads in my email, and one from Musicademy.com caught my eye. I was intrigued by the question so I read through everyone’s posts and decided to add my 2 cents. It turned into a rather long posting and I thought it would be a great addition to the church worship blog here, since I took so long to write it, I am posting it here.
Are Moving Visuals during worship Distracting or Helpful? Discernment and Yet freedom of expression: I agree that moving visuals behind images requires discernment. Not using them at all, though, in order to focus on the words, … Why even sing them at all? Indeed, there have been movements to restrict singing, or restrict it to a cappella, or to just familiar tunes … all so that the music doesn’t distract from the message. All of these seem to contradict the basic spirit of Psalm 150 … “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!” There are layers of meaning and expression that singing offers us that just can’t be achieved in any other way. The same holds true for using instruments. There is an atmosphere that can be created with instruments that is hard to achieve any other way. There are things that I can say with the guitar or piano, or bass, or drums or lyre or harp or…. that are hard to express with the human body alone. That same thing is true of lighting, decorating and visual imagery. There is an emotional difference between an office flourescent tube and a candle lit dinner. They communicate, express, set the tone for different things. You may very well be able to read better in bright office lighting, but is that the atmosphere you want for reading a love poem to your wife? In the same way, we need to use all of the creative arts at our disposal in glorious extravagant worship of our King and Savior and Lover of our Souls! A few more thoughts though: Newness We are commanded to sing a new song. (Psalm 98:1) It is always distracting at first to do so. However, singing and doing something new speaks of the very character of God. He is the Great I AM. While we certainly should not be slaves to the “keeping up with the Jones’s” modern infatuation with the “new and improved”. We need a healthy balance. What are we saying about God if we only sing songs that were written hundreds of years ago? We certainly don’t want to lose our heritage either, which is why we aren’t told to “Only Sing New Songs!” We need a healthy influx of the new, and if at all possible Local! How cool is it to have a local testimony through song, even if it isn’t quite “AS GOOD” as the professional nashville songwriters or the tried and true classics. The content of the songs is NOT the only thing we need to be aware of. Singing a NEW song, says something about God. Singing a PERSONAL testimony of God’s work in our lives communicates something to the community too. Everything new is distracting at first. Every classic song was once a new song. Every classic instrument (guitar, piano, organ, drums, …) was once looked on with suspicion as that “new” instrument. Let us not be fearful or infatuated with the “new”, but walk a healthy balance. Context There are communities and contexts where I am sure it is wisest to simply sing from the hymnal or songbook, and times to just speak the words out loud together. Let us pray to God for wisdom to fit every situation, and yet the grace to allow others to do the same! Our situation At our church we put moving backgrounds behind most of the songs. We are careful to try to match songs with the right “atmosphere” kind of like you would the right lighting, or the right musical groove. This is art, not science, so it’s often a subjective thing with layers of better, even better, best of the limited choices we have. We usually provide printed song sheet handouts for those who have trouble reading. Sometimes we miss and there’s too much motion and it’s distracting. Sometimes we have people who are moved as much by the background as they are by the song. All talking about the same song even! As leaders we can’t and won’t make everyone happy. Let us ask God for divine wisdom as how to best make use of all the tools at our disposal in each situation with skilled hands and servant’s hearts. Solo Deo Gloria (To God alone be the glory) -jason So… Question Time: Tell me about a time that the visuals during worship were helpful or distracting, or your general opinion! Give me some feedback here! -jason
If the player above isn’t working, or you want to download these files to put on your mp3 player or burn your own CD, you can access our entire database of mp3 files at www.cedarhome.org/mp3/
If the player above isn’t working, or you want to download these files to put on your mp3 player or burn your own CD, you can access our entire database of mp3 files at www.cedarhome.org/mp3/
Almighty King, Royal Majesty
Lord, you are glorious, Clothed with splendor and light
Matchless, ageless one, High upon your throne
Your servants are crying out, Glory and Honor to You
All the angels cry, Holy, Holy, Holy!
All creation cries, Worthy, Worthy are You
To receive glory, honor and power forever
To God who was and is, and is to come
One of the things that really struck me in my Worship Essentials Theology class was the picture of God as King. God as King. Professor Dan Wilt would repeat it for emphasis! Also, N.T.Wright really emphasizes the pictures found in Revelation 4 and 5 as central to understand what worship through song should be like. I know there are a number of songs in this vein, but I wanted to have a fresh way to worship God as majesty, so I did some brainstorming of words that I wanted to use and then opened up Revelation chapter 4 for reference:
Revelation 4 (New International Version)
The Throne in Heaven
1After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” 2At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it. 3And the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian. A rainbow, resembling an emerald, encircled the throne. 4Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on them were twenty-four elders. They were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their heads. 5From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder. Before the throne, seven lamps were blazing. These are the seven spirits[a] of God. 6Also before the throne there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal.
In the center, around the throne, were four living creatures, and they were covered with eyes, in front and in back. 7The first living creature was like a lion, the second was like an ox, the third had a face like a man, the fourth was like a flying eagle. 8Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under his wings. Day and night they never stop saying: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.” 9Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives for ever and ever, 10the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne, and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say: 11“You are worthy, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
and by your will they were created
and have their being.”
——
And so… I wrote this song! Hope you enjoy.
Creative Project – Worship Essentials Blue – Winter 09
Once upon a time God created the heavens and the earth. God made the earth a special garden and put inside of it, his most prized creation, the one that most bears his image – humankind. God gave him a free will with the capacity to truly choose love him back. And so the man and woman did. They laughed and danced and sang and played in the garden everyday. Sadly, the serpent Satan broke into the story and convinced Adam and Eve to turn against their Father and smash the peace and harmony in all their relationships. Worship, The free expression, the creative exchange, the response of love that man was meant to have with God was now marred by selfishness, self consciousness, self servingness.
But God sent his one and only Son to set things right again and so after the fall, recreation began again at the resurrection. And now his church, the children who have chosen to return and be loyal to him, are again experiencing the healing and restoration back to right-relatedness that they were meant to have, which can’t help but lead to a continued transformation of all mankind’s relationships.
Communication is at the very heart of every relationship. Speech is organized sound. Music is organized sound. Speech is often concrete, you can use the word rock as a metaphor, but you can also be describing an actual physical thing. Music is abstract. Like intonation of a spoken phrase, it deals with emotion, with they why, with the subtle or not so subtle WAY you say something. Humans, being like God, are quite creative in their modes of communication, just as they are with all sorts of things from problem solving to organizing to dreaming.
God has not only invited his family to return to a loving relationship with him, both individually and as a family, but he has sent us on a mission to blow away the fog of deception that Satan continues to pour out on lost souls. What they need is the light of the truth. They need to hear THE True Story. They need to hear it told in a thousand ways, from a thousand angles. We all do. Bringing life to the truth, bringing body to the truth, bringing not just bland facts, but exploring the living, powerful, inspiring Story is what both the lost and the found need. Salvific Storytellers, as Dan Wilt would call them.
As worship leaders, we are called to gather God’s people and help them to connect with God through music and the arts. We are called to help people engage, pour out their love, yell and whisper, dance and bow, cry and be silent before their wonderful King and Best Friend – YHWH – Yeshua.
Lord, draw us closer to you!
If the player above isn’t working, or you want to download these files to put on your mp3 player or burn your own CD, you can access our entire database of mp3 files at www.cedarhome.org/mp3/
Listen up all you God wrestlers! YHWH – the great I AM – is our God, YHWH alone. He is the one and only true, living, everlasting God. And what does Yahweh want? He wants you to love Him with all that you are!
Let me tell you the story…
In the beginning, or “Once upon a time” as we say in storybooks, God created the heavens and the earth. He is more powerful than we are able to imagine and is a creative, expressive being. If you ever doubt that, just look at creation! Since the creation of the world God’s invisible attributes-his eternal power and divine nature-have been understood and observed by what he made. And this creative, powerful God not only created the universe we see around us, He also put in it one creature that was to be his image bearer. Somehow this creature especially shows the nature of who God is – the human. Like God we were meant to rule and become masters and caretakers of all of creation. Like God, we are creative, from songs to paintings to gardening or nuclear science, our creative imaginations are expressions of our Creator. Humans also uniquely reflect God’s nature in their desire for love, for relationships. Just as God is at heart a loving relational Trinity, we long for deep relationships and love as well. And that is the very thing God wants most from us – our Love! The most important commandment is to Love God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength, – all that we are! And to then extend this same love to all the rest of our relationships. God meant for us to be completely fulfilled in a loving relationship with Him, each other and this playground he built for us – The Universe.
But all of that came crashing down when Satan, one of the angels, chose to set up his own Kingdom and convinced a third of the angels and humankind to join him in his rebellion. War has now broken out and the battleground is the Universe and our human hearts and minds. The right relationships between God and humans, between humans and the rest of creation and amongst ourselves were shattered. Instead of knowing only good, humans now know both good and evil and taste of it every day.
Even before the war broke out though, God had a plan to bring peace. He knew humans would not be able to save themselves, so He would come and save us. Even while humans were still his enemies, he sent His one and only Son, Jesus, to save them. And the only was to be both Just and Loving, which is His nature, was to inflict the punishment that we all deserved, upon himself and He did that at the cross! The rebellion started with Adam and the counter revolution began with Jesus.
Jesus is still gathering together all those who want to be a part of bringing this Creation back under the rule of his Father – his church. His Spirit is searching the earth for humans who are ready to give up their rebellion and pledge their allegiance to the rightful King! He is calling his Church to be the image bearers that humans were meant to be, bringing His Rule and His Kingdom Reign here on earth, just as it already is in Heaven. Not rule based on power and Justice alone, but filled with sacrificial love for those who don’t deserve it.
Someday soon, the King will return and gather up all who love Him to live happily ever after with Him in the freshly healed and restored universe, while all those who chose to be his enemies spend forever banished from Him and His loved and His goodness.
Also, N.T.Wright really emphasizes the pictures found in Revelation 4 and 5 as central to understand what worship through song should be like. I know there are a number of songs in this vein, but I wanted to have a fresh way to worship God as majesty, so I did some brainstorming of words that I wanted to use and then opened up Revelation chapter 4 for reference:
