Worship Weblog
Thursday, June 30, 2005
Keeping and Talking the Word 8
Hear these words from the book that we love…
Yesterday we sat outside on the lawn near the Seminary Pond, discussing Acts 8. Tim quickly stood up.
Wednesday, June 29, 2005
Keeping and Talking the Word 7
This morning Tim read an article he wrote entitled “The Power of Words” from the latest issue of Reformed Worship. In it, he shared a scripture-reader’s to-do list. They are worthy principles that we all can apply to public reading of scripture, so I thought they were worth another look.
1. Warm up before you go up.
2. Look into people’s eyes and not over their heads.
3. Slow down. Reading is more like a walk in the park than like the Indy 500.
4. Slow down. Make every body movement a servant of the text.
5. Remember that punctuation marks were made for the reader, not the reader for the punctuation mark.
6. Feel what you are reading as deeply as you can. What the reader does not feel deeply, the hearer will not feel at all.
7. Treat every word like an only child. Enunciate.
8. Treat every sentence like the last bite of a favorite dessert. Be sure to finish!
9. Remember that microphones are “equal opportunity” amplifiers; they magnify the good and the bad.
10. Don’t forget to breath. Words should rise up out of your belly, not be strained through your throat.
Tuesday, June 28, 2005
Keeping and Talking the Word 6
Today our seminar welcomed Jeff and Karen Barker from the theater department of Northwestern College in Orange City, Iowa. We began the morning with an informal conversation about reading the Word in public worship.
Monday, June 27, 2005
Keeping and Talking the Word 5
This afternoon, Tim told us that he assigns his preaching students at Western Theological Seminary selections from Barbara Brown Taylor and other great preachers. He gives his students half of the sermon, and they are to finish it.
He asked us to do the same with a selection from God In Search of Man by Abraham Heschel. He read the selection and instructed us to finish it in our own words.
As we went around the table and shared our work, Christina commented that people outside of the seminar ought to read these.
Here is the fruit of our work.
Keeping and Talking the Word 4
After a relaxing weekend, we gathered together again and spent the day reading Augustine, Kirkegaard, Heschel, and Acts 8.
WOWAW 6
This week’s Words of Wisdom About Worship:
Life without worship is terribly incomplete. It [is] of the fuller life that the congregation [sings]. It witnesse[s], perhaps without knowing it, to a higher reality, a mystery of salvation, a perspective beyond the limits of this life, a glory that is divine. Inside the walls of the church the singing may [be] viewed as routine; outside those walls it [can strike] the depths of an unfulfilled searching soul. What we need as insiders is a vision of the staggering privilege, and the unlimited possibilities, of divine worship.
-John Vriend, ”A History of Liturgy in the Christian Reformed Church,” 1979
• Listen to a reading of this quote(mp3)
by Nathan Bierma
Earlier: WOWAW 5
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Friday, June 24, 2005
Keeping and Talking the Word 3
Today we welcomed Steven Chase from Western Theological Seminary, who led us through the lectio divina and helped us experience Scripture more richly and deeply.
Alphabet Soup
We were saying earlier this week after staff meeting that we need a guide to the abbreviations we bandy about around here. A first attempt:
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Thursday, June 23, 2005
Keeping and Talking the Word 2
Today we worked through Psalm 134, Acts 8, and a few essays. Again, the day was characterized by good discussion and some profound insights from our readings. Read the full report below.
This Week in Worship History: June 19-25
Happy Birthday to Charles Spurgeon, Reinhold Niebuhr, and the Nicene Creed:
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Wednesday, June 22, 2005
A Few of My Favorite Hymns
Comment editor and philosophical blogger Gideon Strauss blogs his Five Favorite Hymns, with brief explanations.
Also see Gideon’s essay on public intellectuals, and introductory remarks on building institutions.
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‘Keeping and Talking the Word’ begins
Kent Hendricks, a student assistant at CICW, is attending Tim Brown’s Keeping and Talking the Word seminar here at Calvin. He files this report from Day One:
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‘Christ Plays’ 39-47
Discussion at staff meeting this week:
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WOWAW 5
This week’s Words of Wisdom About Worship:
Whatever else churches may be and do, [Word and Sacrament] are central and should reflect the church’s deepest convictions and basic character. The proclamation of the Word and the rituals of baptism and communion depict an alternative world — indeed, the true one — and participation in them constitutes the church’s powerful method of education and training (i.e., paideia) that resocializes believers in every significant relationship and opens up astonishing new possibilities for Christian-human existence.
David Naugle, ”Worship, Worldview, and Way of Life”
• Listen to a reading of this quote(mp3) by Nathan Bierma
Earlier: WOWAW 4
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Grants Colloquium ‘05 Report Index
Here is an index of weblog posts from last week’s Grants Colloquium:
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