In honor of my brother posting the Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi on his blog, I have added a ukulele – melodica version of “Make Me a Channel of Your Peace” in the Box.net widget on this blog.

I thought it would be cool, given the humility of the prayer, to use tiny instruments. The Melodica was a gift from Scotty this Christmas.

Credits: Tiki Flea soprano Ukulele, Bass, teeny tiny ceramic djembe, Hohner melodica, vocals – Will Deuel.

Let me know what you think!

Taking a page from Tripp Fuller, a Baptist blogger with whom I agree more often than not, I’m going to make some New Year’s resolutions.  Tripp’s ideas are good ones so I’m going to modify them for myself in order to be conversant with his blog and intentional about my own.

First, the personal resolution: exercise.  I’ve lost a ton of weight but I really need to get into shape.  Not because I want to look good, but because I have low HDL cholesterol – which is a risk factor for heart problems.  I really need to build some muscle mass and bring that HDL up – and exercise is really the only reliable way.

Second, the Church resolution: EPIC preaching.   When I preached on Mary and Joseph presenting baby Jesus in the temple, I focused on Simeon’s words, “for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples…”  I was struck with the image of a Japanese hibachi restaurant where the food is prepared in the presence of all who sit around it, and that a true worship experience is to sense God’s salvation cooked up in the presence of the people.  I want our worship to be more Experiential, Participatory, Image-rich, and Connective (to borrow Len Sweet’s formula, which is a good one).

And finally, the Blog resolutions.  Tripp lists these four ideas, which I think are good ones:

1. Question of the Year: What is Religion?
2. Gospel of the Year: Matthew
3. Theologian of the Year: Paul Tillich
4. Doctrine of the Year: Ecclesiology

So here’s my list:

1. Question of the Year: What is Worship?
2. Gospel of the Year: Matthew (hey, it’s Year B!)
3. Theologian of the Year: John Cobb (I’ve got some Cobb I haven’t read, and this should be good motivation).
4. Doctrine of the Year: the Trinity

So if I post, like Tripp, on each of those four questions twenty times in 2009 I should have eighty worthwhile blog posts.

Hopefully I can get around to adapting 12 songs  (or even collections of verses) by the Wesleys with new original music.  One per month should be doable.

And maybe I will succeed with RPM ‘09 (I failed in “08, but I got a couple of good songs out of it!) Oh crap, that’s in like a month!

I’ll continue playing Friday Five games and blogging about good CDs and musical discoveries.

When I completed my contextual education / field education / whatever they’re calling it this week, the pastor under whom I served gave me a gift.  It was a United Methodist Hymnal with leather binding, gold-leaf edges and my name imprinted on the cover.  Sweet!

It gave me my favorite joke around campus.  “You can tell I’m a Methodist because my hymnal is nicer than my Bible.”

And now it’s official – we United Methodists are thinking about a new hymnal.   It makes me ponder my own relationship to the UM Hymnal, how it is used in worship, and my own relationship with it.

I’m quite sure I know fewer than 50% of the songs in the hymnal.  John and Charles would not be happy.

I have a really hard time picking out hymns for worship.  I don’t always know which hymns are known by both the congregation and me.  Or which ones the musicians have trouble playing.

At Eden, a UCC seminary, we used the UCC’s new hymnal.  The inclusive language used in the hymnal is probably a good step forward theologically (and I will be transparent in saying that I think inclusive language for both God and humanity is a good thing), but it is awkward singing “God’s eye is on the sparrow and I know God watches me.”  Your mouth just doesn’t go for those words when the melody is so familiar.  One of my profs actually worked on the hymnal committee, and she referred to it as “the new hymnal that nobody likes.”

By the time The Faith We Sing hit the pews none of those songs were contemporary anymore.  Is it time to switch over to some sort of electronic medium that allows for addition of songs in real time?

Some hymn imagery (hymagery?) is disturbing.  “There is a Fountain Filled With Blood.”  You know, I wouldn’t let my kids watch a movie that showed a fountain filled with blood but we sing about it almost gleefully.

My friend Josh is very open about hymns he simply does not like.  Are you open about your favorites/least favorites?  Is it okay for a pastor to introduce a hymn by saying something along the lines of, “I always thought that Hymn of Promise was really cheezy and sappy, but it fits so well with today’s sermon that I thought we should sing it.” (Purely hypothetical, BTW)

One thing I think the Anglicans-Episcopalians definitely have right is the Book of Common Prayer.  (yeah yeah, I know, all the cool kids call it the BCP).  Using resources from the Discipline, the Hymnal and the Book of Worship the United Methodists really should have a book containing our Articles of Religion and Confession of Faith, some creeds, a lectionary, prayers, resources for worship at home, a bit of history, etc.   Could a new hymnal address that, given that we are the ones who are supposed to be methodical about our faith?

What is your relationship with the hymnal as it stands?

Here is an instrumental version of the Thomas A. Dorsey classic, Precious Lord Take My Hand. I started by using Rifftracker to create a backing track for church but let my Roy Buchanan jones show a bit by laying some melodic soloing over the whole thing.  I think it turned out pretty well.

Click HERE.

I used drum loops with the Rifftracker,  my Rogue Beatle Bass and my 1969 Telecaster through the GuitarPort.  Rockin’!

I’ve never been a big fan of what is commonly called “Contemporary Christian Music.”  Longtime readers of this blog already know that.  I find much of it to be derivative and market-driven,  lyrically unchallenging, and often kind of sappy.

But these albums are great.  I love them.

A few years back I bought Legacy (on the left up there) at a time when I needed comfort and reassurance in my faith.  I was in the process of losing a job and preparing for seminary.  And Amy delivered.  What I found was an album that dealt with real faith struggles (“What You Already Own” can be gut-wrenching if you really think about it), comfortable familiarity (if you grew up in church you know these hymns), and an easy groove.  Amy Grant and her husband Vince Gill made the musical decision that these songs should be treated with reverence and respect but approached in a lovingly playful manner.  The end result is that they settle into an easy groove that is comforting, sweet, listenable and ultimately wonderful.  “Softly and Tenderly” is haunting and beautiful.  “Nothing but the Blood” is soulful.  “Imagine” is less bombastic than the MercyMe version.  “Marching to Zion” closes out the album wonderfully, leaving the listener with an uplifting song of hope for this world transformed.

The bummer is that somewhere during one of our moves we lost the CD and its case, but it is still ripped to our hard drive and we made copies from that.  We do still have the bonus DVD for some strange reason.   This album has been a favorite for both my wife and me, especially in the car.

Amy and Vince pick up where they left off with “Rock of Ages.”  We just got that one last week.  Big surprise since we had “Legacy” since it was brand new and we love it so much.  Rock simply continues with the easy groove of Legacy, bringing forth more familiar hymns and good originals.  It really is more of the same, which in this case is a good thing.  Never overblown, its understated cool and beauty shine through, making me wish Amy and Vince would do this over and over forever – or that they would join my church and lead the worship music.

This music is just plain old good.   Alternately folky, soulful (bluesy even), haunting, and sweet, I can find absolutely no fault with either album.

Also recommended:  Hymned by Bart Millard.

Check out this story from the United Methodist News Service.

I’m a big fan of Charles Wesley. As a music-obsessed, guitar-playing, uke-strumming, songwriting, United Methodist, I have long considered it the height of cool that our heritage is based upon the work of a great theologian (John) and a great songwriter (Charles). I say that not to diminish John as a songwriter or Charles as a theologian. I say it to lift up Methodism’s historic emphasis on artistic expression of faith.

It has long been asserted that the Wesleys did a better job of describing their Eucharistic theology in song than in writing. Some days I too wish I had a thousand tongues to sing my great redeemer’s praise (most days I wish I felt that way more often) – and that passionate expression of faith’s assurance is far more powerful than simple descriptive words. I’ve even heard some assert that United Methodists in the pews actually learn more theology from our hymnals than from our pastors. (That’s not the downfall of pastors, it’s the power of song).

I don’t know about you, but I totally look forward every Easter to singing those loud, lusty Alleluias in Christ The Lord Is Risen Today. (sidenote: when we say Christ is risen today, how existential is that?) Thank you, Charles. How much theology is there in this single stanza?:

 Let us plead for faith alone, faith which by our works is shown; God it is who justifies, only faith the grace applies.

Thank you, Charles. Come, Sinners, to the Gospel Feast! Thank you, Charles.

Who are today’s Charles Wesleys? Can we aspire to express our faith as beautifully, lustily, passionately as Charles did? I pray we can.