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 Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Worship and Neuro-theology
Check out "Faith is More than a Feeling:  The Problem with Neurotheology is that it Confuses 
Spiritual Experiences-- Which Few Believers Actually Have-- With Religion, a short article in this weeks' Newsweek Magazine discussing the connections or lack thereof between neuroscience, spiritual experience and God. 

Those who follow this blog know of my ongoing interest in this conversation. One of the big questions I have for Christian worship and worship leadership is whether it leads us into an experience that is escapist in nature or toward a deeper immersion into the Life of God.  I summarize it as the contrast between Narnia and Nirvana. Narnia is a deeper place of reality.  Nirvana is only a deeper place in our own spiritual experience. Is worship an escape into an existential experience or entering into an encounter with eternal reality.  It is quite easy to confuse the two.  Is worship about being led to my "happy place," or being radically reoriented around the reality of the God we know in Jesus Christ?  Or are these the same place after all???

So how do we tell the difference? In the end, I posit there is only one way to tell where authentic worship happens:  Examine what happens outside the worship gathering.  Are worshippers loving others in ways that go against their self interest? As the article points out-- Saints aren't canonized because of their religious experience, but for their extravagant sacrificial love. 

How about it? Does the article shed any helpful light on the subject? What questions does it raise for you? 
posted by John David Walt | at 4/29/2009 09:08:00 PM | 1 comments

 

Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Worship Central: Resource

I had a great time with Tim Hughes and Al Gordon out in California last week at their Worship Central America gathering. Tim and Al lead worship at Holy Trinity Brompton in London and continue to grow a ministry of encouragement and equipping to worship leaders across the World. 

I was looking on their website today to see what had been put up from the conference when I found this recording of my teaching with them at the Chicago conference this time last year.  In the recording I outline a job description and suggested curriculum for a worship leader around the following headings:  Theologian, Priest, Pastor, Prophet. I also do some teaching on Romans 12:1-2, offering a large framed theology of worship.  Yes-- I had two days of material for an hour of teaching and so I hardly get it covered.  However, it gives you a sense of some of my worship thinking. 

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posted by John David Walt | at 4/28/2009 08:07:00 AM | 0 comments

 

Thursday, April 23, 2009
Worship Central Training Conference-- Join Us

I'm enroute to the OC (to be part of a worship conference put on by Tim Hughes and Al Gordon at Worship Central.  (U.K.).  I'll be teaching a couple of sessions entitled, "Crafting a Theology for  Doxology."

 
Worship Leaders ARE the primary practical theologians of the Church. Noone shapes the people of God more than the ones who envision, design and lead their worship. While you probably do not need a theological degree, you must cultivate a life of theological learning and training. This session will explore a theological vision for worship design and leadership with practical guidance for weekly worship gatherings. As well, we will explore how a theological mind shapes a doxological heart in both worship leader and worshippers

If you are in the area, please sign up and come. 
posted by John David Walt | at 4/23/2009 06:28:00 AM | 1 comments

 

Friday, April 17, 2009
LEVITE CAMP Today
Join us Today from 10-2, Royal Auditorium for the final spring session. (prior participation not required).

Special Guest Teacher, Marcus Green, from Great Britain will lead us in this extended session.  His first book, Salvation's Song, is worth the read. 

I'll get back to more regular conversation next week. 
posted by John David Walt | at 4/17/2009 06:07:00 AM | 0 comments

 

Sunday, April 12, 2009
The Many Faces of Worship: Easter Edition

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posted by John David Walt | at 4/12/2009 12:01:00 AM | 4 comments

 

Saturday, April 11, 2009
The Harrowing of Hell
Here is George Mackay Brown, poet of Orkney, in his poem entitled “The Harrowing of Hell:”

He went down the first step.
His lantern shone like the morning star.
Down and round he went
Clothed in his five wounds.

Six steps follow: 
on second he meets Solomon; 
third David; 
fourth Joseph; 
fifth Jacob; 
sixth Abel

On the seventh step down
The tall primal dust [Adam]

Turned with a cry from digging and delving.

“Tomorrow,” ends the poem, 
“the Son of Man will walk in a garden
Through drifts of apple-blossom.” 

(“The Harrowing of Hell,” in Northern Lights [London: John Murray, 1999], 24.)

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posted by John David Walt | at 4/11/2009 03:01:00 AM | 0 comments

 

Wednesday, April 08, 2009
Holy Week Poetry: Intermingled
For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body.

intermingled life and death
fusion of your blood and breath
the human God of Love Divine
heals lineage of our broken line

intermingled joy and pain
behold the son of goodness slain
sealed by stone in earthen mound
while resurrection rends the ground

My Son! My Joy rise up to reign!
The end of death makes suffering's stain
a work of art in wounded clay
revealing script of passions play

O suffering God grant me a share
to humbly speak the Garden's prayer
to bid Your life in me be born
my striving temple's veil be torn

my body now entombed by flood
intermingled water and blood
resuscitated by your death
intermingled with the Risen breath.

John David Walt, Jr.

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posted by John David Walt | at 4/08/2009 07:22:00 AM | 2 comments

 

Today...