a well-watered garden

Lysenko comes home

Sunday afternoon we had 4 students from the Music School (high-school level) over for an early Christmas dinner with music, games, and a reading of the Christmas story.

Here's a short clip of Angelina playing Grieg's Concerto in A Minor (I only recognized it because my brother Craig played it, or part of it, once for a recital long ago):

It's just too bad I didn't get the beginning - the famous 'dum, dum, da-dum-dum'.  She really sounded great!  But I only caught the calm parts in the middle.  The three on the floor in the foreground are building a Jenga tower  :)

worship in the simple church...

I've been wanting to write this entry for a week or so but have been gathering my thoughts (i.e. procrastinating as usual and not blogging).

There are two topics in one here:  Simple Church and Worship.

Simple Church is one of the expressions for a new/old way of doing church:  Church that goes beyond the weekly meeting, or the pastor-audience model;  a more participatory gathering which helps people be disciples from the A to Z of life.   In a simple church (or 'organic church' as Neil Cole calls it), your regular meetings may more likely be a family-style meal than a Sunday morning hour or two consisting of 5-7 worship songs, a pastoral prayer, offering collection, and sermon.  Ideally the meeting would reflect Ephesians 5 or Colossians 3 passages that talk about the church (the believers) ministering to one another and bringing glory to God through Spirit-filled and inspired sharing, teaching, singing, exhorting and giving thanks.

But what I think may be the most important part:  a 'simple' church is meant to be simple in order to be about the business of making disciples.  Often our churches drain our people (or that 20% or less who lead in the church) of their time and resources on programs that may or may not effectively make disciples.  The resources go back into an institution (which exists for its own sake) instead of fueling a movement (which exists for others).   A lighter structure may be helpful in keeping things moving--much like less gas is needed to keep a motorcycle on the road than a Hummer--and it can still get you where you need to go.  The simple church is supposed to be about 'going.'

The 'model' itself - if it is a model - isn't what makes the difference.  You can meet with a small group all you want and have it be neither church nor a disciple-making entity.  But for the sake of part two here, I just wanted to lay out a few basics.  For more, see www.simplechurch.com.ua where some folks in Ukraine are working to apply simple church principles to the context there.

'Part two'.

I wanted to talk about worship.  Worship-leading and the whole science (or art?) of worship in the church has been greatly influenced by the church-growth and seeker-sensitive initiatives.  We tend to make choices about the kind of music we need and the kind of leaders who should be up front based on the 'audience' we'd like to attract to our church.  The questions we ask ourselves tend to go like this:  Are our Praise & Worship songs in the current "Top 40"? is this the style that people in our demographic target group listen to? are the worship team members the right age to relate well to the congregation? etc

I can't make fun really, since I'm always looking for something new and fresh to sing - and preferably something that sounds a little bit like U2.

And in about a month I'll be leading worship for a conference in Europe using primarily modern songs written by English-speakers containing only 3 chords.

But I'm getting a little off-topic and talking about style when I want to talk about intent, purpose, and all that . . .

The question is:  if we want to make disciples, if the Church's task is to GO and make disciples and then BE disciples when we are together, then I think some of the worship questions might be:

-- How do you lead worship in a way that teaches others the habits of worship?  (How do you lead believers in worship?  how do you help nonbelievers 'see' and to some extend comprehend what's going on as the believers worship?  how do you temper 'excellence of performance/modelling' with meeting people where they are - spiritually as well as musically?)

-- Is the phrase 'LEAD worship' even fitting anymore if we are talking about a simple, organic church where 'everyone has a hymn . . .'   Do you need a worship leader?

-- Do people need to be taught how to participate in a participatory church meeting?

-- What kinds of music lend themselves to being useful in a setting where you want everyone to be as able to participate as possible?

These are some of the things I've been thinking about and I wanted to get them down in writing and perhaps even start a conversation with you (since that's what a blog is kind of supposed to be!)

So - what do you think?

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Also, if this entry was interesting to you--see "I just like a more traditional church..."

On This Shore

Funny title: 'on this shore.'  Sounds more like a new album by Iona than a statement about my location--especially considering we aren't on the shores of anything except the creek behind our house.  Or the Beaver or Ohio Rivers, I guess.  :)

I've been back in the US since June 14th, when I flew to Pittsburgh with four of the nine who'd come to Ukraine for a 10-day visit.   The team was great!   I'll post a pic soon.

Apologies to all who actually read my blog. I've not written much or well in the last month or two!  Always seems to go in fits and starts.  If you are reading this and want to get regular up-to-date ministry/mission reports, leave a comment with your email address, and I'll put you on my newsletter list!

...more later...

Things always change....

Some of you who get my newsletter heard me talk about "Glad You Asked", which is 'an interactive DVD video designed to facilitate discussion of the Christian faith among the spiritually curious."

I praised God for the opportunity to use this video not only at my home group, but also at the university.   Well, though I was able to use it at the uni without any flak from the leadership who gave me permission--it seemed to extinguish interest among the students.  I lost a few after the first meetings--which was either because of the choice of material, or because they'd been forced to come (by their teacher) in the first place!

I know in the States we often think about 'bringing God back into the schools' or 'bringing prayer back into the schools.'  Here in Ukraine, there have been periods of great openness.  Orphanages, schools, and universities have welcomed visitors who would be permitted to talk about the Lord.  That 'blank check' given to visiting speakers is fading...but perhaps being replaced by the new mandates regarding Christian ethics curriculum (Ukrainians can be trained to teach lessons in morals and avoiding harmful behavior in teen years -- it can be a great outreach as well as helpful prevention education).

But what I'm trying to figure out is:   When does it help and when does it hurt to discuss belief in God in a public forum?    The students who came to my first 'Glad You Asked' heard from me more or less directly that I was a missionary, that my goal was to help students think through the big questions -- they knew it was about God.  So it wasn't exactly some kind of sneaky tactic.  But I still wondered if they felt a little bit snuck up on.  Like, 'we were expecting English Club and this foreigner wants to talk to us about religion. Harumph!'

So I'm taking a step back, but hoping that isn't compromise (in the negative sense) either.

I'm remembering that they have no reason to take me seriously or trust me yet.  Also, it makes sense to talk, and listen, and teach about a variety of subjects that interest them--showing that faith connects with life--that it isn't some weird bubble hanging out there disconnected from reality.

Pray for me that I'll find the right balance.

A Trip to Visit Dima

. . . and mom and dad, Olga and Yaroslav.   Olga has an interesting job.  She writes up to 300 letters a month to children all over Ukraine, many of them orphans.   I went to visit them a week ago Tuesday, and find out how things are going with their ministry and with Dima.

Here's what it looks like on the platform at Fastov when you get off the electric train from Kiev:

Dima was looking pretty perky for a kid who has to wear a hard plastic suit of armor.  He's been wearing it since he left the hospital this Spring after surgery to remove an abcess in his spine caused by tuberculosis of the bone.  Now his backbone has the hard work of growing back straight.

Here's a good picture of him in his own 'train' :)

and finally, some video, if it works!   It'll show you how much has changed since he spent months stuck in a hospital bed last year: