(2) Every time that we get in the car with Henry, we turn on “Carry On” by the band Fun. and sing at the top of our lungs. Here’s a clip of him letting it rip…

“Most of us know that God is beyond gender. When we look at the Book of Genesis, we see that the first thing God is looking for is quite simply “images” by which to communicate who-God-is (Genesis 1:26-27). God is not looking for servants, for slaves, or for people who are going to pass loyalty tests. God is just looking for images—“images and likenesses” of the Inner Mystery.

Whoever God “is,” is profoundly and essentially what it means to be male and female in perfect balance. We have to find and to trust the feminine face of God and the masculine face of God.

Both are true and both are necessary for a full relationship with God.

Up to now, we have strongly relied upon the presented masculine images while, in fact, our inner life was more drawn to our mother’s energy. That is much of our religious problem today.”

Adapted from The Maternal Face of God
(available in On Transformation: Collected Talks, Volume 1)

No 3

Friends, I can’t possibly tell you how excited I am about New Liturgy No 3: “Lord Have Mercy”.

This is the darkest, most honest, most raw liturgy yet…like a 25 minute Ash Wednesday service inviting us into the deep streams. Confession. Repentance. Absolution. All held together by Grace.  I don’t claim to be the least bit objective (ha!), but if you really press me, this is my favorite of the three.

As with each New Liturgy, you can download
“Lord Have Mercy” at anewliturgy.com for $5.

It is also included in the Digital Mega Bundle.
(check out below for more details)

Your interest and support mean the world to all of us who are pouring ourselves into A New Liturgy .  Thanks so much!  Sincerely.  May it help you create holy space wherever you find yourself…

The Bundle includes…

(1) All Three New Liturgies – “No 1: God is Love”, “No 2: Blessed to be a Blessing”, and the brand new “No 3: Lord Have Mercy”.  (To see the heart behind No 3, watch This Video.)

(2) “A New Liturgy LIVE at Axis” video – A couple months ago, we joined up with the Axis community of Willow Creek for a night of worship, music, and prayer for the world.  They are a fantastic community of Christ-followers who are joining God in serving and redeeming the world, and they poured themselves into co-creating “Blessed to Be a Blessing”.  This 30 minute video captures some of the powerful spirit of the night.  (Watch a few minutes of it at the end of the video above).

(3) The “Making of New Liturgy No 3″ video – During the recording process, my mega-talented brother Eric brought his camera to a number of sessions.  This 12 minute video has interviews with the musicians, footage of the recording process, and gives a glimpse into the journey of making “Lord Have Mercy”.

(4) A New Liturgy Remix EP (vol 1) and (vol 2) – A friend and I have taken a few songs from Liturgy No 1 and No 2, and have remixed and re-imagined them.  Some our more electronic and groove oriented, some are driving rock, and one is named “The-All-We-Are-Saying-is-Give-Peace-a-Chance-Sing-a-long” version.  You can learn more about it HERE.

(5) All the lyrics and charts – If it would be helpful to you and your community, we’re including the lyrics and chord charts to the first three Liturgies.  (John Arndt even graciously let us include the brilliant string arrangements he wrote for No 3.)  Feel free to use them in any way and in any kind of gathering.

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We hope this is a gift to you…that some or all of this material might help you create holy space wherever you find yourself.  God is everywhere, of course, but sometimes it’s helpful to have a moveable sanctuary…

Honored to be on the journey with you!
Aaron

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The goal is engagement.  As artists in the church, we are using music and art to create a holy space that invites/allows our community to engage with God and each other.  The goal is never excellent music or art.  However, excellent music and art definitely helps people engage…up to a certain point.

(1) At first, I believe that excellence and engagement are directly related.  If the music sucks, people are distracted and disengage.  And so the better the art is, the easier it can be to engage with God.

(2) However, there is a certain point where this flattens out.  Once the experience is “great” (which is SO subjective), making the art 10% better doesn’t always help the community engage 10% better.  In fact, truth be told, they may barely notice.  (This is one of the gifts that living with a really discerning non-musician has taught me!)  Chasing the “more is more” mentality or a “the better we play the better they’ll pray” approach doesn’t always bring the result we’re aiming for.

(3) I believe that there is a wide range of musical/artistic quality that serves people well.  Musical excellence is just one value in a web of very important worship leading values.

(4) However, if we try to push beyond the point where our excellent art serves the community well, I actually believe that it becomes self-defeating and hurtful to our goal of engagement.  The music can become so interesting and attention-drawing that people stop seeing it as a pathway, and start viewing it as the focus.  This is a very subtle, subjective tipping point, but very dangerous.  And even if the music never reaches this flashy level, the pursuit of “over-excellence” can very quickly chase away all the quirk and honest humanity that makes art so compelling in the first place.

I realize that I’m talking rather objectively about wildly subjective and mysterious things, so please forgive the over-simplification.  (I even drew a chart.  A chart?  A chart!!  Who have I become?!?!  ha.)

Does this connect with you at all?  How have your observed excellence and engagement working together – or against each other?  If you’re a worship leader or artist in the church, how do you approach it?  Curious to hear your thoughts…

A little more about the EP…

I hope you enjoy!

(1) Fun.  I can’t stop listening to the new album “Some Nights” by Fun.  I’ve been a fan of the lead singer for a while now (he used to front The Format), but he’s taken things to an entirely new level of ridiculous melody, drama, and…well…fun.  Freddie Mercury would be so proud.

IJM GPG

(2) IJM GPG.  My band and I got to be a part of International Justice Mission’s Global prayer Gathering in DC this weekend.  It was one of the most compelling gatherings of Jesus followers I’ve ever seen.  These people are the REAL DEAL – giving their lives to fighting for justice on behalf of the most forgotten people on earth.  They literally are in the business of freeing slaves, mostly young female sex slaves.  The stories were heartbreaking and beautiful and made me want to be a better person.  No hype…just prayer, stories, more prayer, and the Eucharist.

the boys

(3) Being a dad of two boys.  These two kids bring more joy to my life than I could have ever imagined.  Whatever the word “delight” means…they embody it.

(4) The Bible Made Impossible.  This book is blowing my mind.  Author Christian Smith’s premise is that Biblicism (a very common literal approach to the Bible, common to Fundamentalist and most Evangelical Christians) is actually impossible to practice according to its own claims.  But instead of arguing for a classic Liberal alternative, he appeals to a more beautiful third way that maintains a very high view of the divinely inspired scriptures without asking the bible to be something it was never meant to be.  (A full review is coming as soon as I finish it.)  Please read this book.

(5) Paul and his string quartet.  My friend Paul is one of the best musicians (cellist) I know, so when he offered to pull together a string quartet for “New Liturgy No 3: Lord Have Mercy“, I imagined it’d be great.  But I didn’t realize they’d be THIS great.  Here’s a little taste during the recording session…

(6) Awake.  I’m torn about this new show on NBC.  I really enjoy watching it, but can’t decide if it’s (1) A brilliant new show that’s finding it’s way into new territory, or (2) A one trick premise that can’t sustain itself beyond one season.  Is anyone else watching this show?

What about you?  What is inspiring you these days?  Recommendations?

Three exciting announcements:

(1) A New Liturgy No 3: “Lord Have Mercy” will be available on Tuesday, May 8th.  Today is the final recording session (with an incredible string quartet), and then we dive into pulling it all together.
“Lord Have Mercy” is different from the first two in a number of ways, and I absolutely can’t wait for you to experience it.  More details coming soon.

(2) To celebrate, we’re giving away a 3 song EP called “A Renewed Liturgy” in two weeks.
A friend and I have taken three songs from Liturgy 1 and 2, and have reimagined, re-tracked, or re-mixed them.  One is “The Alberta Remix”, one is “The Toms and Trombone Treatment”, and one is “The All-We-Are-Saying-is-Give-Peace-a-Chance-Sing-a-long Version”.  The free download will be available only through A New Liturgy Newsletter.  ”What is the New Liturgy Newsletter?”  Well, I’m glad you asked…

(3) A New Liturgy Newsletter.  Can I humbly invite you to join our new mailing list?   You will receive occasional updates, behind-the-scenes pictures/videos/stories, and of course, the free “A Renewed Liturgy” EP.  (A free download link will be sent out to everyone on the list in the next two weeks).  This Newsletter will be the primary way to stay up to date with all things A New Liturgy, but I’ll keep them brief and occasional.  If you’re interested, please sign up below…

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Sign up for the Newsletter here.

Peace,
Aaron

Rory Noland

There are few people I respect more than Rory Noland.  He’s been a mentor and friend and councilor and sage in profound ways over the last ten years, and continues to help me navigate the complexities of being an artist in the church.  I seriously don’t know how I would have survived my first year in ministry without his open door down the hall.  (And with all my questions, I can’t imagine how he managed to get any of his own work done!)

If you’re looking for a wise and Godly artist who has seen it all and come through with his integrity, I’d highly encourage you to reach out to Rory.  A part of his ministry these days is to mentor younger artists and help them (us!) become both the artists and human beings we were created to be.  Rory is the real deal.  You can learn more at…

heartoftheartist.com 

Relevant.com

You can read the whole thing HERE.  If you have some thoughts, definitely leave a comment and join the conversation.  Blessings…

the mic

This weekend at Willow re-taught me an important lesson.

The worship experience was a liturgical type journey through the four scripture passages from the 5th Sunday of Lent.
We read the scripture aloud, sang a few old-school songs and hymns, paused to pray in silence, and tried to let God speak to us along the way.  (You can see more details HERE.)

But as excited as I was, our Saturday afternoon rehearsal was a little disappointing.  We played all the right notes and read all the right words, but the energy was dead.  The experience felt empty and hollow…like it was missing something very important.

But then it hit me like a ton of bricks:  Of course we were missing something important…we were missing the lead instrument:  THE COMMUNITY!  And once they filled the room and began to pour their hearts into these readings and songs, the whole experience came to life.  Of course!  I had forgotten that the key role of a worship leader/band is to be the accompanist of the congregation, and so a rehearsal should always sound empty without them.

In fact, if the sound of our rehearsal is full enough to be a performance, then it will probably be bad accompaniment.

You’d think I’d know this by now, but I was thankful to re-learn it this weekend.  Our team is still working to figure out how to create musical arrangements that leave a “congregation-sized hole” in them, rather than fill up all the space and ask people to sing along.  But it’s quite counter-intuitive…especially in those painfully empty rehearsals!  However, we’re committed to becoming the best accompaniment band we can be, always remembering that God is the audience, the church are the performers, and we are their backing band.

Fellow worship leaders, does this connect with you?  Or do you approach things in a different way?  I’d love to hear your thoughts!