Calvin College

CALVIN - Minds in the Making

Festival of Faith & Music

FFM 2007

Conference


Workshop B (Fri, 3.15p)

 

In the Spirit of FFM
A Student Activities Roundtable
Steven Austin, Ken Heffner & Jeff Rioux
Fine Arts Center 224 (69)
Student activities at Christian colleges can be venues for important discussions about art, faith, God, meaning and more.  Listen in while experienced activity directors discuss how they're shaping a new kind of concert season and pop culture conversation at their colleges.

 

Playing Out
Considerations of Faith in the World of Localized Live Music
Chris Smit, Joe LaGrand, Steve DeRuiter, Ben Scott-Brandt and David Molinari
Library—Meeter Center Lecture Hall (80)
Every night, in every town, there is a band playing live music.  Playing to two or 200 folks, all these bands are expending energy to connect with an audience, to sell a CD, to share something new with someone new.  Panelists will discuss what this scene looks like through a lens of faith and ideology.  No celebrity, no record deal, no big money—what does a localized music scene feel like to musicians who are working out of, and reacting to, a Christian worldview?

 

How is this Relevant?
Progressive branding, fake rebellion and the culture industry
Kevin Erickson
Fine Arts Center 224 (34)
Self-consciously straddling the gap between the Christian subculture and the broader secular world, Relevant Magazine both reflects and shapes young evangelicals' struggles to find their place in a postmodern pluralistic society.  But what exactly is Relevant's strategy for "engaging culture", and how does it truly differ from what came before?   What are the real driving forces behind its theological, political, and "progressive" cultural agendas?  In this workshop, I'll use my in-depth critical study of the magazine and its parent company Relevant Media Group as an entry point towards discussing our current environment of generationally-based target marketing, commodified dissent, corporate-funded fake-indie record labels, ironic t-shirts, rebel rocker-activists, and Christianity's changing relationship with the culture industry. 

 

Sacred Harp as a "Third Way"
Matt Hinton
Commons Annex Lecture Hall (200)
A discussion of the question of traditional vs. contemporary styles in the context of congregational worship. Does Sacred Harp singing represent a "third way"? You need not have attended the previous film showing to participate.

 

Prophetic Imagination Then and Now
Sylvia Keesmaat
DeVos Communications Center—Bytwerk Theatre (115)
The prophets were called to name the violence and pain of the empire and provide a word of fresh hope in the face of imperial death-dealing. We will listen to both biblical texts and contemporary artists Mandy Troxel and Leonard Cohen, who bring such a prophetic imagination to life.

 

The Cry of the Exodus, Part 2
Music of People in Struggle
The Psalters
Chapel (800)
See description from part one.

 

There is a Light That Never Goes Out
Saint Morrissey and the Gospel
Ben Squires
Fine Arts Center 223 (26)
Morrissey, as lead singer of the Smiths and in his solo career, has written lyrics that cut deeply—even piercing the soul.  While Morrissey has never claimed the Christian faith as his own, his lyrics show a recurring conversation with God.  This presentation will take a look at the echoes of the faith in Morrissey’s words as he approaches the subjects of temptation, God, death, and Gospel-type metaphors, while also seeing Morrissey’s “pastoral care” and Morrissey as prophet.