A NEW LITURGY

December was rough. I came down with a bug that went from bronchitis to walking pneumonia and lasted for weeks. I spent a night in the ER when a case of vertigo threw me to the ground on a street in South Bend and kept me pinned down, puking till my stomach was empty and heaving after that. It took a few days for things to stop spinning. We got word that my grandmother was in her final days, about ready to give up the battle with alzheimer's that had been taking her slowly for years. And there was an investigation we had to undertake at church, with the senior management team spending long days looking into allegations against a teammate and friend of ours. 

One night, in the midst of all of that, just after we had delivered difficult news to our staff about our conclusions in that investigation, and as were delivering that same news to an auditorium filled with students and parents, I had a moment when my resolve cracked and a quiet voice inside said "it's not worth it." I felt that whatever satisfaction or fulfillment or significance I thought would be part of the life I've chosen didn't compare with the stress, frustration, and heartache that goes with the turf. The thought eventually subsided, but not before dealing a heavy blow to my morale.  

I woke up the next morning and grabbed my phone to check email. (Ordinarily that's not my habit — I try hard for email to not be the first thing I encounter in the day.  But I wasn't operating in normal mode during those few weeks.) Mixed in with the usual inbox load was an unexpected surprise from a friend. Aaron Niequist had sent me a link to his newest liturgy. 

For as long as I've known Aaron, he's been a dreamer and creator, prophet and pastor, a mentor to me both through the conversations we have (usually over gluttonous meals) and through the songs he writes.  I reached out to him years ago when I came on staff at Granger, feeling like I was in over my head and needing some help. Since then, I can't tell you how many times Aaron has helped me to lift my head above the waters around me to see something more beautiful and expansive than what was right in front of my eyes. Sometimes it's a different vision of what a worshiping church can look like. Other times it's a different perspective on the world our churches inhabit. Whenever I encounter Aaron or his work, I can count on being encouraged and challenged.  So when I saw the link for A New Liturgy, I made a mental note to check it out when I could find a break in the day. 

I took a quick shower and raced out the door to meet someone for breakfast, but he never showed, so I grabbed a seat at the counter and ate by myself. 

Perfect. 

I downloaded Blessed to Be a Blessing and listened with my earbuds while I ate. 

Something happened in the span of about 20 minutes. Through prayer and spoken word and, yes, great music, I went from tired and resigned to hopeful again. I felt myself breathing deeply again. Late in the liturgy, Aaron says "Maybe this would be a moment where we open up our hands and our hearts and just say 'God, I'm in. However it is that you want to use me to bring hope and healing to this world, I'm in.'" I had been slowly losing my capacity to pray that prayer for days (maybe weeks), and Aaron's New Liturgy - Blessed to Be a Blessing -- brought me back to that place.  

These new liturgies are more than songs.  In Aaron's words, they're holy space... a moveable, sonic sanctuary.  He and his crew have created short, portable journeys that create space for prayer and reflection mixed with moments when I unapologetically shout and dance in a way that only my roommates and my dog have ever seen.  

There's a credible hopefulness in these liturgies. They remind me of what story I'm living in, and they draw me into living it more deeply. I trust these liturgies the way I trust a good therapist -- I know they will ask questions of me that are difficult, that push me to uncomfortable places, but I also know those questions are trustworthy and part of a process that will grow me into maturity. Simultaneously my feet are grounded and my heart is lifted. I thought about going further to describe what Aaron has created, but I figured the best testimony I could give is to tell you about the profound impact it had on me.

Go here to see what Aaron is up to and download the liturgies for yourself. And if you do, I'd love to hear what you think.

BAPTISM

We're ramping up to our baptism celebration at Granger, and we wanted to create a video piece that would help people think about the meaning of baptism. There was a teaching goal involved, but more than that, we were hoping for something beautiful, because baptism is such a beautiful, significant moment.  

It's not uncommon for our projects to live on short timelines, but this was sort of extreme. Ideally, we'd love to brainstorm a concept one week, script it the next, and shoot and edit during a third week.  With this project, we brainstormed till midnight Sunday, shot Monday (and wrote the script as we shot), and edited Tuesday-Wednesday, to use this past weekend in services. I'm really proud of Dustin Maust, Cody Baker, Adam Tarwacki, and Brandon Ellsworth (our brave pier jumper) for their work on this. And whether baptism marked your journey in the past, or it will be a part of your future, I hope it's inspiring for you, too.

Baptism Teach 2011 from maustcreative.films on Vimeo.

Augustine | what to pray for

Some advice on what to pray for from Saint Augustine:

Stretch wide the net of your insatiable desires, greedy, and find something greater than God, find something more precious than God, find something better than God.  What won't you possess, when you possess him?  But all right, rake in to yourself gold, silver, as much as you can.  Cut out the neighbors; keep a tight grip on your estate by enlarging it, till you reach the ends of the earth.  Having bought up the whole earth, add the seven seas.  Let everything you can see be yours; let everything under the water which you can't see be yours.  When you've got all this, what will you have in fact, if you haven't got God?  

So if by having God a poor man is rich, and by not having God a rich man is a beggar, don't ask him for anything except himself.

(Sermon 105A, from Essential Sermons, New City Press)

the time i needed God the most

We're wrapping up a series at Granger this weekend called The Time I Needed God the Most.  I'll be sharing the story of a painful chapter from my past.  The preparation this week has been difficult - more difficult than I expected.  But my inspiration is the courage of the people who make up our community.  There's a common thread of authenticity that runs through the hearts of so many people at Granger, and being a part of that family puts the steel in my spine that I need this week to do my part. Here's a taste of what I'm talking about:

The Time I Needed God the Most - Granger, Week 2 from Granger Community Church on Vimeo.

when I'm taking myself too seriously...

There are days when it's easy to take myself too seriously.  Sometimes, when that happens, I go watch this video again.  Jeff (the cow) and I have been close friends for 10 years now, through school and ministry together, and I don't know if I've ever had as much fun with him as I did when we made this with video prodigy Ben Sanders calling the shots.  Fair warning... this really offers very little value to your life in any way.   

Inter-moo from Granger Community Church on Vimeo.

Michael Eisner on hiring storytellers

From Michael Eisner, in the Wall Street Journal Magazine:

I would much rather hire an executive who has taken courses in history and philosophy and language and art, and English and Russian literature than somebody who has only studied a single element of one subject. When my son wanted to go to undergraduate film school, I called George Lucas, who told him: Don’t go. Learning to make a movie is like learning to drive. Anybody can learn to drive. It’s where you drive that counts.

A lot of people can learn to write computer code and understand the inner workings of the technological revolution we’re going through, but if you’re going to be in content, I would rather you understand what makes a good narrative. To find people who can make you laugh or cry or smile or get upset or learn something about yourself. Those people are rare. They are rarer, frankly, than the others. We always talk about the lack of engineers in America. I would say we lead in what is most important to create all this, which is the education system for liberal-arts students. To me, that’s key.

For people coming into the entertainment businesses, the openings are enormous. However, the rules of drama haven’t changed. Denouement has not been replaced by dead ends. You still have to have characters, you have to have an emotional reaction, and you have to learn something from it, preferably. Those things don’t go away.

the good life

I'm really excited to be teaching the next two weekends at Granger!  Here's the trailer for our series, The Good Life.

The Good Life Trailer from Granger Community Church on Vimeo.

step aside, march madness

an homage to baseball (and bigger things) on opening day

The day my parents brought home the Chevy Corsica was a big day.  We were living in a small town in southwestern Michigan, right by Lake Michigan, and I was 5 or 6 years old.  A new car for the Millers felt pretty good (especially because it was a stick, which seemed cool).  

My dad and I would ride around in that car as he listened to AM sports radio that we picked up from across the lake in Chicago.  There was usually a sort of droning hum in the sound, like an electric buzz, I guess because of the distance the signal had to travel.  Sometimes I would notice my dad humming, too.  Not a melody, though.  He would just match the drone of the radio, every time he exhaled.  I guess he was really into sports radio (still is).

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OUR STORY

Have you seen this video from last weekend at Granger?

Our Story from Granger Community Church on Vimeo.

You can probably tell we were inspired by Chrysler's 'imported from Detroit' ad that debuted during the Superbowl.  But this video is also reflects a longer conversation we've been having for a while about the need for art to locate us in place and time.

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SATISFACTION AND THE CREATIVE LIFE

Andy Crouch posted a piece at qideas.org awhile ago called "From Purchases to Practices".  I've reread it several times since.  The piece is built on an important observation: we're prone to find our identity in the things we consume, but an identity as a consumer will let us down.  Each new purchase offers a short period of enjoyment before it starts to wear off and we crave another purchase.  He then points out that practices work in the opposite direction.  Learning to play guitar, for example, isn't very much fun at first.  But, as time moves on, the practice actually delivers more and more satisfaction as it expands your capacity.  He really had me excited at this point, because I feel like modern life is packed full of reminders about how hollow life is when I'm primarily a consumer.  I aspire to a life built through intentional practices that grow me up, but I need to be encouraged often, and Crouch's piece did exactly that.  At first.  

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