Music – Page 4 – A Work in Progress

No Surrender

Watching the Glee tribute to Cory Monteith tonight was interesting for me. I don’t watch the show as much as I used to, because it’s gotten a little hard to watch at times, and clearly is not what it used to be. Tonight, though, was a little different, mainly because of what I thought was a pretty well done depiction of people grieving a loss, and that grief–like life–can get ugly at times. Tonight was all about music as part of the grieving process, and that really struck home with me as well.

I realized tonight that I’ve always done that, too. Especially when I was young. And tonight, when Mark Salling’s character Puck sang a very heartfelt rendition of Springsteen’s No Surrender, from Born in the USA, it made me think of when that song served the same purpose for me, though I never sang it outside of my bedroom, or perhaps the shower.

I remember my sister gave me her vinyl copy of Born in the USA back in the early part of my sophomore year in high school. She had liked the record at first, but then got tired of it in pretty short order. Well, I played the hell out of that record–so much so that I ended up buying a cassette, and wearing that out, too. There was this one song, in particular that struck me, and still means a lot to me today–No Surrender. It was all about being young, and about what music can do in a person’s life, when you’ve yet to be touched by the cold hand of reality and you could still change the world with a song.

And it was about dreams–I had plenty of those.

It was awesome.

I remember walking around school after my dad died with that song playing, just looking around at people while I listened, and it gave me a little hope. Kids were doing homework, or talking, or making out with boyfriends or girlfriends. They were eating lunch, or listening to music. Kids would sit around the edge of the Blue Stage all through lunch period, and it was hard to get a seat. I may have felt like my world was in tatters, but life was going on around me, and I knew I would join those other kids eventually.

It just didn’t feel like it at the time.

Still, the song painted a picture I could relate to–especially after what a blessing my friends had been to me after my dad’s heart attack. It was really more about friendship than anything else. It spoke about what the friends you have when you’re young can do for your life. It spoke of the bond between young men when your friends seem closer than your brother, and sometimes are.

For Christmas the next year, my sister gave me a live boxed set of songs from 1975-1985, and the following video is the filmed version of that song.

If you’d to take a look into my head (and heart) during a pretty tough period, this is a good place to start…maybe you need a little hope, too. It does get better, and surrender is not an option.

No Surrender

I remember my sister gave me her vinyl copy of Born in the USA back in the early part of my sophomore year in high school. She had liked the record at first, but then got tired of it in pretty short order. Well, I played the hell out of that record–so much so that I ended up buying a cassette, and wearing that out, too. There was this one song, in particular that struck a chord in me–No Surrender. It was all about being young, and about what music can do in a person’s life.

And it was about dreams–I had plenty of those. It was awesome. I remember walking around school after my dad died with that song playing, just looking around at people while I listened, and it gave me a little hope. It painted a picture I could relate to–especially after what a blessing my friends had been to me after my dad’s heart attack. It was a poignant depiction of how friendship can save a life, and in my case plant a seed that would one day germinate into faith.

It was not Springsteen himself that did it, and not really even the song, though it was and is great. My friends saved my life that year, and I learned about love from then in a way I never did from my own brother. Not that we sat around hugging each other and talking about our feelings. That would’ve made us chicks, or at the least giant pussies.

It was about comfortable silences, and basketball, and centerfolds, and blowing the hell out of alien spaceships. I think now that the friendship between young men is probably the truest and most primal form of love there is.

But anyway.

For Christmas the next year, my sister gave me a live boxed set of songs from 1975-1985, and the following video is the filmed version of that song. If you’d to take a look into my head (and heart) during a pretty tough period, this is a good place to start…

Healer

Deliver Me

I heard Jenny’s dad practicing this song over the weekend, and I had never heard it before–at least I don’t remember hearing it. But it resonated in my heart. Take this one lyric, for instance….

“all of my life, I’ve been in hiding..”

There’s a Sarah Brightman version out there, but I think this is better:

All things to all people

This is a blog by Todd Agnew. He’s an awesome blues/rock/gospel/worship/praise artist, in case some of you didn’t know:

“For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.” 1 Corinthians 9:19-23 (ESV)

Seeing as how the same thought has come up twice this week in completely unrelated circumstances, I think it may be of some value to share it with you. One instance was being in the van driving back from our shows listening to a sermon from my church. But that’s where you expect to hear from God and learn what He desires from you. The second instance was listening to a concert by a band that as far as I know doesn’t know God at all. They may, and that’s not really the point. The point is that it was a very different environment to be hearing from the Lord.

Now I’ve noticed that in our churches most of the time we want people to be like us. We may say we want to be welcoming to all races, but what we really mean is we’re going to do church like white people but anyone else is welcome to attend. Or we’re going to do church like black people, but you’re welcome to come. Or we’re going to do church like Hispanic people but you’re welcome. We have an upper middle class service but people from a lower income bracket are invited, should anyone happen to run into one. Now while I’m sure that is a step in the right direction, considering the stories I’ve heard of segregation in generations before, I don’t think it was what Paul was talking about in 1 Corinthians 9.

I think I first noticed it in worship music. Obviously that is my field of strength so I pay attention to it. I noticed among many churches I was working with that they were starting to say they wanted to reach people of all ethnic backgrounds. And yet their services didn’t change at all. They may have invited people from other cultures, but hadn’t done anything to actually make them feel welcome once they arrived. Once again, the music stood out to me. A church I knew said they wanted to start reaching the African-American community surrounding the church, but musically they stuck with an entire roster of Passion songs. Now don’t get me wrong. There is absolutely nothing wrong with those songs. But they have definitely defined a generation. All I’m saying is in the middle of their set, why don’t they work in a gospel number? Or even a soul or hip-hop track? These visitors’ opinions on music are just as valid as ours. And Paul says he became like the people he was trying to reach. Not after he knew them, but in order to know them. So it seems to me that if we wanted to reach other ethnic groups that we should value their culture, their music, their heritage, and include them in our own.

So here is the example I wrote about. This weekend I attended the Austin City Limits Festival, which I will blog about in the days to come. On Sunday, we went to church and then hurried over to the festival grounds to make sure we got our spot for Abigail Washburn and the Sparrow Quartet. Abigail is a singer and a banjo player. The rest of the group included a violin (fiddle, if you will), cello, and another banjo. Of course, the OTHER banjo player was Bela Fleck, which only means something to music fans, but he’s amazing. So anyway, these guys (and girl) were incredible. Their instrumentations and arrangements were so creative. The songs were beautiful. And the musicianship was exquisite. I’m sorry, I know it’s a weird word, but it’s really the only one that fits. So anyway, they told a story about touring China and having such success that they were invited to be the first American group to play in Tibet. And in their set, they played two Chinese folk songs. They said when they played one of them at a high school in Tibet, they had 3,000 high school kids singing along. And they didn’t just learn Chinese songs to tour China. They truly appreciated the art and the music of this place. They had a love and a passion for it. So they had worked up amazing arrangements of these songs, using the banjo, a very American instrument. God really spoke to my heart about these people and their story. They had prepared to reach a very different people group. But they hadn’t just done it to be a hit over there, they truly valued this other culture and its music.

So I began to wonder what it would be like if we, the church, approached reaching people in this way? What if we built churches that didn’t demand that people fit into our mold, but accepted them and not only accepted them, but valued them as they are? What if, in trying to reach different people, we became different ourselves? What if we included their musical styles? What if we altered preaching styles, sometimes? What if a protestant church was willing to include some liturgy? (Now you Episcopals back off, I’m obviously not talking to you! …now that’s a joke. I’m just kidding. But I also refuse to use LOL or smiley faces to define my humor.) What if we were willing to become like the people we were trying to reach? Now obviously this is not a question of holiness, or of the church becoming like the world. I don’t mean that at all. I don’t mean we should start using offensive music in our churches because that may be what lost people listen to. I just mean that maybe we should put our preferences aside and be willing to include other cultures in our values, not just in our verbage.

I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Todd

Pray

I’m really not a very politically minded person. Maybe I should be, but I’m not. It’s only fairly recently that I started voting every election. I used to just vote along party lines, which for me tended to be conservative, or Republican. But now, considering the state the country and the economy are in, I think I would vote for whoever had the best answers.

This year–a presidential election year– we have Senators Obama and McCain in the race.

Change you Can Believe In.

Straight Talk.

Which to choose?

A friend I was talking with once referred to Obama as a “hollow” man. I really think she’s right. He speaks platitudes. He makes reference to CHANGE, but does not (that I’ve heard) specifically define it. What does he really plan to do? I don’t know. All I hear is how change is needed. How we can’t afford four more years of Bush in the White House. His campaign seems to mostly center on telling people what he thinks they want to hear about the war in Iraq, about the economy, and about CHANGE.

But what is he going to do? I don’t know. I don’t have the discerment that some people do, but when I think about Obama as President, I get a feeling of unease–almost dread in the pit of my stomach. It isn’t just his empty speeches filled with empty words. It’s a lot of things. To me, he almost seems anti-American at times. Removing the flag from his airplane. Standing at indifferent ease during flag-raisings and pledges of allegiance. There are several things like that, and feel free to look them up on the net if you want to.

Is McCain the perfect candidate? Of course not. No one is perfect. But I believe he is the best candidate this election, and I will vote for him. I respect his service and sacrifice to his country. I respecte his experience. I agree with almost everything he has to say. Will he follow through on all of it? I don’t know. Maybe he won’t.

But he is specific about his plans. Or at least, not as vague as the Senator from Michigan (or wherver the heck he’s from).

One problem I see in Obama telling people what they want to hear is that it seems to be working. He is the “it” person, or candidate, for the entertainment industry right now, in all its liberal glory. He has Hollywood on his side, and worse yet, has Oprah lobbying for him.

Oprah, for heaven’s sake.

And it seems to be working.

I hate the thought that it seems he has a very real chance of winning, based on that alone, not on experience, not on issues, but on popularity, and the endorsement of the Hollywood elite.

I hate it.

When I expressed this sentiment to my friend, she said “Are you praying about it?”

I was speechless. I hadn’t been, or at least not to the extent that I should have been.

I used to rationalize not voting by thinking that my vote didn’t count. It’s just one vote, I thought.

It doesn’t matter.

But what if everyone thought that? What if all the people that could have made a difference in this or any election thought their vote didn’t count, and did not vote because of it?

Now, I vote.

So my other thought is that, what difference would my prayers make in regard to the whole country? How are the prayers of one man in San Diego going to impact the country for the next four years?

The answer is that they won’t, if I never pray them. What if everyone who could have made a difference by praying did not pray because they thought their prayers would not matter?

Now, I will pray. Look at what James has to say about it:

“…the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective…” James 5:16.

Jesus’ brother.

I will pray.

I will pray that God’s will is done in regard to this election, above all other things.

I will pray for wisdom for myself, in regard to my vote.

I will pray for wisdom for the American people in regard to theirs.

I will pray that blinders are lifted from eyes in regard to Senator Obama, and that truth will be revealed in hearts.

I will pray that Senator Obama encounters Jesus somewhere along the road to Damascus (or Pennsylvania avenue, if that’s God’s will).

I will pray.

Let me just leave you with the words of one of America’s greatest minds. MC Hammer.