“Be Still My Soul” is a popular revival hymn written by Katharine von Schlegel (1697-c.1768) and translated into English by Jane L. Borthwick (1813-1897). Read more at Christian Music Suite101

Be still, my soul: the Lord is on thy side.
Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain.
Leave to thy God to order and provide;
In every change, He faithful will remain.
Be still, my soul: thy best, thy heavenly Friend
Through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.
Be still, my soul.

Be still, my soul: thy God doth undertake
To guide the future, as He has the past.
Thy hope, thy confidence let nothing shake;
All now mysterious shall be bright at last.
Be still, my soul: the waves and winds still know
His voice Who ruled them while He dwelt below.
Be still, my soul.

Be still, my soul: when dearest friends depart,
And all is darkened in the vale of tears,
Then shalt thou better know His love, His heart,
Who comes to soothe thy sorrow and thy fears.
Be still, my soul: thy Jesus can repay
From His own fullness all He takes away.
Be still, my soul.

Be still, my soul: the hour is hastening on
When we shall be forever with the Lord.
When disappointment, grief and fear are gone,
Sorrow forgot, love’s purest joys restored.
Be still, my soul: when change and tears are past
All safe and blessèd we shall meet at last.
Be still, my soul.

Here’s a short video that I’ve found very inspiring. I do hope you enjoy it too.

Peace,
Marvia

This video depicting the brutal killing of Jesus draws heavily on the movie the Passion of Christ – so be careful if you are watching with children.

Blessed Easter,
Marvia

So Epiphany fully establishes the start of the New Year, and announces a sense of renewal. In Christ, the new has come! In that Spirit, I wish you a Happy New Year! I also encourage you to join me in this Epiphany prayer. Make these words your prayerful offering to God this year not just in saying them, but in how you will live in order to make God known to the world.

King Jesus,
We bring you our gold:
talents God gave us,
skills we acquired,
a little money, a little power,
a little success perhaps,
and plenty ambition.
These we offer to you,
so that you many make them really worth something
in your kingdom.

Jesus, great High Priest
we bring you our frankincense:
deep needs and longings,
which are sometimes easier to admit in church:
the need for forgiveness and peace,
the need for friendship and love
the wish to do good
and the knowledge that we must have help
if we are to do it.
Lord, help us,
pray for us.

Jesus, crucified Saviour
we bring you our myrrh:
shadows on our path,
weakness, illness, limitations,
grief for ourselves and others,
our knowledge of parting and pain.
These we offer to you
so that what we bear
may be touched with the holiness
of what you bore for us;
and so that, by your grace,
we may have part
in the world’s redemption

Amen.
[Taken from Baptist Praise and Worship]

I pray that 2009 will be a fulfilling year for you and your loved ones. Serve God with even more joy as you serve your sisters and brothers and make known the Glory of God in your life, workplace, home, community and church so that the kingdom of God may grow through your blessed efforts. Therefore, live a life that announces the Kingdom of God is here.

Shalom!
Marvia

Advent or Christmas
Celebrating Advent was never a big part of the calendar of many Protestant denominations. It’s been catching on in recent years. I probably became more conscious of Advent celebrations about 20 years ago. Since then, it has become my lifeline to Christmas. I’ve grown truly sick and tired of the commercialization of the season, aided of course by Christians who are just as big consumers (if not more so) as ‘the world’. Thus, Advent helped me to recapture the meaning of Christmas and to keep the celebration in proper perspective.

Advent has been largely neglected in Protestant tradition as is many of the celebrations during the Christian calendar year. It is still quite common to see the surprised reaction of members of some Baptist congregations I’ve served when I use words like ‘Liturgical Calendar’ or invite them to focus on Advent and not just Christmas. I see the restless shifting until one brave soul asks the question I knew they were dying to ask, ‘so are we turning into Catholics ?’

Thankfully its not like that everywhere. With the hardworking efforts of some pastors at educating their membership that attitude is changing. Moreover, through the Ecumenical movement and the exposure gained from sharing fellowship with others, we sometimes see the rich traditions of the Church that are being neglected by some sections of the Church. Advent is like that.

Nonetheless for those of you who observe this season in your congregations, or wish to introduce it to bring greater focus to what Christmas is all about then I suggest that you use some Advent resources over the course of 4 weeks of the Advent calendar leading up to Christmas.

The dates of the Advent Calendar 2008 are listed below:

• November 30 – First Sunday of Advent
• December 7   – Second Sunday of Advent
• December 14 – Third Sunday of Advent
• December 21 – Fourth Sunday of Advent

WCC Advent Liturgical Resource 2008
For those of you who use Liturgical resources and have not yet decided on what to do for Advent here is a great resource from the World Council of Churches (WCC). The theme for the Advent resources they are sharing with Christians worldwide is Imagine: Peace.

My worship leaders fell in love with it (as I thought they would). Packed with complete liturgies (patterns and actual content for a complete service), this is a refreshing change for Advent. It brings a Latin American flavour including songs in Spanish. The worship was prepared in Matanzas, Cuba and if you don’t have any hang-ups about Cuba then you should be able to enter into the worship experience with joy. The focus on peace is definitely timely, given how hostile and unfriendly the world has become.

There is still time to change what you were planning to use. Go ahead and download a copy from the WCC website here.

Peace!
Marvia

It’s nothing new. People are still trying to figure out who exactly Jesus is. Recently, Discovery Channel shared the story of a bowl discovered by a diver off the coast of Alexandria bears the title Christ the Magician. The discovery is being touted as the earliest known reference to be discovered that makes reference to Christ as a magician. Theories posited exposes the close interrelation between early Christianity and paganism.

No doubt that story might have offended the sensibilities of some very good Christians. It got me thinking about who and what Jesus means to us today.

Imagine what some of you think of Jesus depicted as a Rastafarian as in the image below. The image is a reproduction of the famous, Black Jesus Montage by Brazilian artist Vincent Barzoni. Jesus as Rastafarian prophet and messiah is one way that some persons experience him. Others reject the very thought of such a thing.

Jesus as a Christic figure was always surrounded by a lot of bad perceptions, wrong assumptions, misconceptions about his nature, life and ministry. It was all a part of his mystery. He meant many different things to different people. Furthermore, there were those who weren’t quite sure his powers were genuinely miraculous works of God or if he was tapping into demonic “powers” like that of Beelzebul (or Beelzebub). See the accusation in Luke 11:15, “He casts our demons by Beelzebul, the ruler of demons.”

But you know something; there is a thin line between one person’s magic and another’s miraculous and mighty works of God. I don’t know about you but it is getting more and more difficult in this hype-hungry age to differentiate between the two. Moreover, It is difficult not to make a judgment call on some of the things I’m seeing these days in some church settings. Is it Magic or power of God?

Look at Christianity today. Some Christians depict a Jesus who looks like suspiciously like a cross between Santa Claus and a skilled conjurer. He has a big bag of material blessings just waiting to dish out on individuals – if they only believe. Poof! God just hands out wealth, wonderful health and peace. Heaven right here on earth!

But this Jesus is very selective. He only blesses the few not the many. Why? Because the many have no faith or they have some sins in their lives blocking the blessings. Somehow whole communities in Africa, and Asia for example never gets community wide blessings. Yet there are the few examples of ‘abundance’ that keeps the dream alive.

And this Jesus seems to be blind to the ravages of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, or even the new emerging deadly strains of cancer that seem to target certain groups of people. The lives of bright promising children and youth without a parent named Jairus are being cut off daily. And they are staying dead.

While some make Jesus out to be a selective magician, others prefer the Messiah who is present amidst the suffering, walking with the hungry, the poor, the marginalized, and the powerless. I’m not sure that we his followers, especially those of us who follow in his footsteps in a prophetic ministry, are representing him very well at all. And who we say we are, and how we treat others tell people something about the Jesus we proclaim.

So Peter declared, “You are the Messiah”. I agree.

And you, Who is Jesus to you?

Marvia

Jamaica’s Reggae music is already a force to be reckoned with in the global music industry. Reggae Gospel music out of Jamaica has been receiving a lot worldwide attention over the past 2 decades. Historically, Reggae music has been identified with Rastafarians, the most prominent of them being Reggae music icon Bob Marley. Over the years, this genre of music has received a lot of flack from church leaders in Jamaica.

I was among the many youth (back then!) of my generation who rejected the demonizing of what I identified as our music – coming out of my homeland. I was appalled at the double-standards we held to music in the church. The politics of music was not lost on me then, still isn’t now.But I promise to get into that story another time.

Right now though, if you want to add some Irie vibes and Zaz to your morning/evening Praise songs or outdoor gatherings – encourage your musicians and worship team to experiment and mix it up a little with music from around the world. Take my biased opinion and start with Reggae.Don’t know how to play Reggae? Well that’s why I’m sharing this with you…

Watch these Reggae music instructions in a nice instructional video with musician Paul Baloche. I’m no musician, but I can tell you he got it right. Hey maybe I should make my own video teaching you the dance moves! Now that’s an idea to get me de-frocked!

Anyway, do  enjoy the video and hope you learn how to kick it on a drop chord rhythm. Niiccee stuff. Who knows maybe you’ll be ready for some Dancehall Gospel soon.

Oh and please, when you watch the video pick up the music tips, but do not pick up Paul’s pronunciation of Reggae as ‘Raygay’. It’s ‘Re’ (as in red), ‘ge’ as in get. So Reggae = Re-ge. Very good!

Peace,
Marvia

Lack of commitment now characterizes much of modern church life. People are joining churches. They want a special comfortable place that they can attend on Sunday to hear a good sermon. If they are adults they don’t mind the odd social gathering. If they are ‘youngish’ with a family they want a nice safe place with lots of kids-friendly activities. You know something like one of those chicken nuggets outlets with a mascot with a bright red nose.

What they do not want is to be made to feel uncomfortable. Like you are trying to disturb them and prick their consciences or something. They do not want to hear about the starving people in Africa. For heaven’s sake, don’t we have enough hungry people on the streets of our communities. Enough already!

Worship is supposed to be a Happy Place. They come every Sunday for a filling. They make it clear they are there to feel good. And trust me, they have very discriminating taste. They shop around – just like they do for the best gas prices. And they know what they want too. They want louder music, more anointing, and lots of vibes flowing. Yea that’s the spirit moving right there. Keep massaging that ego-spot. Can’t you feel the love?

But they are the first to ask, what’s that about the queer guy doing in our church? Did you say that teen had an abortion? Some still shun single-moms and lament at their awful kids and dysfunctional family. Thank God, our family is not like that!

Today, the fastest growing seem to be big on diversity. Aren’t those multi-ethnic people pictures on their church website precious. Awwww. They think the church photos are so cool. Sunday night news brings a dose of reality. What’s that about Obama being Black? Who are all those Middle-Eastern terrorists? Why are those Asians taking our freaking jobs?

This is the church to join. It’s a beautiful place to be. And the pastor knows just the right inoffensive words. And he (we don’t want no she-pastors around here!) doesn’t pressure us to do anything you know. We don’t have to even be baptized – or any of that deep-heavy-way-out-serious kinda stuff, you know. So we are happy here.

Welcome to the church where worship, church membership and lack of commitment is seeing church membership records ballooning. Its called modern easy church growth – without commitment.

Are you in one of those happy comfortable churches where you feel no conviction to commit your life to doing something more? Well I’m not your pastor, so I can afford to tell you the truth.

If you are comfortable in your church and feel no demands or sense of conviction to do something more with your life, and to make a difference in the lives of others and in the world then you need to either quit that happy place or seriously start to read your Bible and ask the Spirit to speak to and breath life into you. To quicken your sense to hear the call to move from comfortable to convicted and then to obedience to allow your life to actually mean something. You’ll be truly happy when you learn how to say, “Lord use me!”

Tired of all this boringly nominal Christianity being bandied about as Church. Oh please!
Marvia

There seems to have always been concerns about the nature of worship. Over the past few decades there has been much confusion and division within congregations on any given Sunday morning. The disagreement surrounded what might be considered ‘appropriate content’ for worship. The division raged between two groups – the contemporaries and the traditionalists.

The ‘contemporarists’ (my word) wanted changes to the order of service which they describe as boringly traditional, too rigid and inflexible. This group were mostly the youth and young at heart who wish to see something different. Among the differences they wanted was the introduction of the the now infamous, ‘praise and worship songs’, more musical instruments, dance, and use of contemporary worship jargon from popular worship in the media.

The ‘traditionalists’ however, did not want any of the above brought into the church. They believed that the contemporary inclusions were at best disrupting the dignity of the worship experience. They found no substance in contemporary forms, and believed praise songs were largely meaningless and shallow.

Can these two groups see eye to eye?

My own concern in all this is that in the effort to please one or both groups, we can lose focus of what worship really is. The event becomes the private property of some members. Worse yet, it is reduced to cheap entertainment. People attend only for a ‘feel-good’ fix and disappear afterwards. They surface each Sunday for their fix. There is no commitment to service during the week.

Worship is not an exercise in ‘feeling good’. We meet for Prayers, The Word, Singing, Fellowship in word and The Sacraments. (1Cor.11: 23-25) These elements make up the content of worship. What we are really getting hot about is how the content is structured or organized. Basically, we disagree about what the Liturgy or Order of Service helps us to do in the corporate worship exercise.

We are still a long way off in resolving this issue. Both groups of worshipers are still up in arms. The pastor is usually either caught in the middle trying to keep peace, as between warring factions. Sometimes, there results an even bigger problem when the pastor takes one particular side. It might even result in members of one group leaving the church as they no longer feel comfortable with the style of worship.

Check out the worship scene in your church. Do you find that there is unity in your congregation and everyone is happy with how things are proceeding? That is rare, and I’d love to hear what accounts for this in your church. Do share with us.

Peace,
Marvia

Today I visited a very nice congregation and was quite pleased to see they were using a projector to aid in the worship experience. It took some time to implement the use of a projector in our congregation. Some felt that it would spoil the worship experience. On the contrary. Projecting the hymns and songs led to a dramatic increase in singing during worship.

Our communications and worship department workers were trained and are always looking for ways to improve their ministry. I wish all churches would take a similar serious approach. It seems to me that in some places, churches are just rushing out to buy projectors, hooking up a screen and Action! No training.

So my momentary joy at seeing the projector in this church went right out the window in no time. And enter my peeves. I went through every one of these in a single Sunday morning service.

1. Correct spelling is not optional – It is both amusing and annoying to see some of the common spelling errors, which show that someone behind the controls is no Spelling Bee. It is a sure source of distraction for the youth in particular who poke fun at the spelling errors and miss out on worship.

2. Failure to check the lyrics – There is nothing more confusing than errors in the words of a song on the screen. Given it’s a familiar song, half of the congregation are stubbornly singing the right words. The other half are singing the error (some thinking it’s creativity at work, while some are just learning a new song – with the wrong words!). And the song leader is oblivious to the error…just wonderful.

3. Use of inappropriate backgrounds – Some people just love busy screens. This drives me nuts. I can barely read the words while I fight with huge mountains and scenic landscapes. I find keeping it clean and simple to be most effective, using good contrasts like a white or very pale background with black letters.

4. Sleeping or otherwise non-alert operators of the computer sends me up the wall. Imagine singing an unfamiliar hymn, the song leader surging ahead, and the words are still stuck at the first verse or at the chorus. And then there is rapid advancement of the song, sometimes even too far ahead. Just great I tell you.

5. Projecting of the family photos wallpaper, and desktop while searching for files during worship. So help me! This is sure to get me to start thinking dark thoughts during service.

I’ll resist the temptation to go on and on.

Instead, let me share with you some very useful free tutorials and articles I came across at Imagevine. Be sure to take advantage of their free backgrounds download. But do, use them responsibly.

Take care,
Marvia

Image courtesy of FreeFoto

Good multi-media worship resources are in hot demand. Appropriate and relevant backgrounds for presentations during worship demand levels of expertise that escape some of us. Instead of spending hours trying to create something, I use ready-made worship backgrounds.

Worship leaders and church communication department members constantly scour the internet and store aisles looking for the latest, different, and unique resources for worship. Do you find yourself doing that too?

I admit, I do it all the time.

Online and offline, from other (especially friends’) churches to stores, I am always on the lookout for new worship music lyrics and worship songs in general. I even urge Choir members to collect material to share with the Choir director. Of course, that will only work with a Choir Director or Church Organist who is open to the input of choristers. And that is not as common as you might think. But I leave that for another time.

So my collection of worship multi-media resources is growing, and on my quest for more I came across this community that shares free worship resources. Actually, I was out looking for free photos and came across this site that was giving away free images quite by accident. While I was helping myself to the free images, I found a link to more great stuff. I couldn’t keep this to myself so I’m sharing with you.

Come check out the ReelWorship community and connect with me while you are there. Upload or download worship backgrounds and other images you can use for a variety of projects and presentations. You may also share videos and worship music (mp3s) as well.

See you there,
Marvia