Lead me to your heart- Essentials Green Spring 2009 Week 5 – Final Creative Project

For The institute of Contemporary And Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen’s University, Essentials Red Online Worship History Course with Dan Wilt.

Here is a rough draft with the whole band

http://cedarhome.org/mp3/songs/rough%20drafts/leadmetoyourheart-may14roughdraft.mp3

Lead me to your heart

You’ve called me on a journey
To leave behind the sinful valley
To let go of the bitter pleasures
poisoning my soul
The road ahead is narrow
With twists and turns, it’s steep and winding
But Jesus with your hand in mine there’s
nowhere I can’t go!

Lead me to your heart
Help me climb your holy mountain
There is more to you
than I will ever know
I fix my eyes on You
Step by step, your path I follow
Though the way is long
I’m pressing on!

Words & Music by Jason Chollar April 23, 2009.

Lead me to your heart (D)

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The Story

I sat down tonight to do my final creative project for my final class towards my music BA.  As you have probably read, this module has been about worship values and spiritual formation.  I was reading through and thinking about the Psalms of Ascent (120–134) sung by the Jews on their trips up to the city on the hill: Jerusalem going to the temple to worship. This is one of my favorite illustrations of congregational worship, a group of people heading up the mountain to worship the Lord. I was also thinking of Lot escaping from Sodom and Gomorrah.  Also, notice the candles in the video shot, for mood.

What do y’all think? I’d love some feedback!

-jason

For The institute of Contemporary And Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen’s University, Essentials Red Online Worship History Course with Dan Wilt.

Greetings everyone.  This week’s class was astoundingly rich.  I am like a jukebox on TILT.  It is going to take me a while to be able to distill and process the information and turn it into experimentation, action and practice.  We read a few excerpts from classic books on Christian spirituality from authors such as C.S.Lewis, G.K. Chesterton, John of the Cross, Jonathan Edwards, …

I would say that overall it is very clear to me that our spiritual maturity is a journey, and I have a long way to go, but many have gone before and offer their advice and guidance and I would be a fool to ignore it all.

Let me give you just 1 little tidbit that might even be provocative.  One of the suggestions for growing in maturity is to light a candle during your time with the Lord.  Why?  Is this superstitious? Is this giving in to the flesh?  In the eyes of some, it is simply recognizing that we are physical creatures, and are affected by our environment.  In the same way that it might help to tune my guitar before leading people in worship, because an out of tune guitar can be distracting, enjoying the act of lighting a candle, drinking it in with all my senses, basking in the intimate glow  that a candle offers, can be helpful to me as a physical creature.  It was also suggested that I pray, as I am lighting the match: “Lord I know you are fully devoted to me.  I am fully devoted to you.” So, why not try it?

In my house, I am going to have to be extra careful, beause I have an autistic son who LOVES to play with matches and candles and fire and smoke.  Still, it’s worth a shot.

Anyone want to give it a try with me?

I’ll report back in a week or so after I’ve had a chance to experience it for myself.

Until then,

May God bless you on your spiritual journey.

-jason

Worship Essentials Green – Spring ’09 – Week 3 – Kingdom Expectation

For The institute of Contemporary And Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen’s University, Essentials Red Online Worship History Course with Dan Wilt.

Week 3 – Kingdom Expectation

When we gather as a church family to meet with our King Jesus, do we believe He is there and expect him to interract with us, or are we just going through empty motions?  Father, we say we want to hear from you.  Do we expect then that You’ll speak and are we listening, ready to hear and obey?  We say we need healing and restoration.  Do we expect God to bring it?  In the same way that James tells us to ask God for wisdom and then fully expect God to give it to us, I think the same holds true for worship in so many ways.  Lord, teach us to not be disrespectful and ask but not listen, hear but not obey.  We believe that you are at work among us, and in a special way when we are gathered together in your name.  Teach us to approach these times with eyes and ears of faith, looking to see how indeed you will choose to interact with us.  You are alive and close to us and long to reveal your love to us.  I pray that we are open to receive it!

We cannot force God to show up at our meetings or determine how He will choose to work.  Sometimes He works in big, bold, tangible ways and other times his Presence is more subtle and less easy to discern.  If we say that we are meeting with God, though, and we act as if He isn’t there and we have to do all the work ourselves, then we are playing a pathetic, shameful game and we should stop.

Lord, teach us to listen and respond to your voice.

May Your Kingdom come and your will be done, right here in us, among us and through us.  Make Your Kingdom tangible through us.  We surrender and lay our lives down to you, King Jesus.

Amen.

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Question:  How can we help people to come with true Kingdom Expectation, not just come to play the religious game?

-jason

Worship Essentials Green – Spring ’09 -

Week 2 – Accessibility & Cultural Relevance

For The institute of Contemporary And Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen’s University, Essentials Red Online Worship History Course with Dan Wilt.

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Accessibility & Cultural Relevance

This is a huge priority here at Cedarhome.  We truly value the participation of our every day people in our services.  We want everyone to be able to come in and truly engage with God. We don’t want God to remain hidden behind a cloud of ancient churchy language.  God is enough of a mystery as it is!  We want to build bridges and allow people to truly connect with God and love him with heart, soul, mind and strength.  That’s why we only do one new song a month.  That is why we do some of the songs in the keys we do them.  That is why we are very careful about choosing songs that are helping people connect.  That is why we do a spread of songs, aiming to engage everyone from the youngest to the oldest, from those who have grown up in church, and especially to those who may have never set foot in a church before.  That is why we have such practical teaching.  That is why we have words on the screen and are careful with the background images and also print out songsheets whenever we can.  That is why we turn the music up loud enough to excite and engage, but not so loud that is overpowering.  I could go on and on.  We want all to feel welcome and loved and understand what is going on and be able to fully participate.

I believe this is an area where Cedarhome is particularly strong, but there is always room for improvement!  What more can we do to help make God accessible, especially to someone who has never been to church before?

Hit me with your ideas people!

-jason

Worship Essentials Green – Spring ’09 -

Week 1 – Intimacy & Integrity

For The institute of Contemporary And Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen’s University, Essentials Red Online Worship History Course with Dan Wilt.

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This week’s readings and videos were about 2 values in god pleasing worship:  intimacy and integrity.

God has chosen to be vulnerable and reveal himself to us, risking our rejection and all the pain from it.  He is taking the first step of love towards us, and he wants us to do the same.  Lord, teach us how to be honest and vulnerable with you in our worship.  We don’t want to fake it.  We don’t want to pretend that everything is ok, when it isn’t.  You give us permission to relate to you as our heavenly Abba, Daddy, Father.  Lord, help us to not just sing songs and sit through a sermon, but to truly engage with you.  And Lord, help us as church leaders to model it ourselves and make space and time available for your people to do just that.  Lord, we want to be real with you and have our lives reflect the prayers and priorities that we sing about in church, that we read about in the scriptures and that we say on Sunday morning that we hold dear.  Lord, cause our lives to be in line with our prayers, and lead our prayers to reflect your heart more and more.

Question to anyone reading this from Cedarhome: How can we encourage intimacy and integrity at Cedarhome in our worship?

I would love to hear your ideas.

-jason