Transmission

This week, the Barna Group, a Christian research/survey organization, published “How Many People Really Go To A House Church?” a study of house churches in America.¬† Besides looking at the history of house churches, the article includes an interesting examination of American views on house churches.
When asked if they had attended a “worship service” at a home in the past month, about 10% of the adult population said they did so.¬† However, when the wording changed to “religious service,” the percentage went up to about 14%.¬† Then when the question changed to “Have you experienced God or your faith in a house church or simple church meeting,” ONE THIRD of Americans said they had been to such a meeting in the past month.

Perhaps the words “worship” and “religious” are somewhat loaded in our culture, and associated with very specific rites, whereas the experience of faith in the presence of other believers is something separate, seen as more casual.

One of the ideas of Transmission is to merge these definitions and to realize that “worship” is meant to be organic and does not need to be confined to what we do in church pews, that the “experience of God and faith” can be experienced in our living rooms, gardens and kitchens any day, any time: as the Bible said, God is present any time two or more are together in his name.

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Nadia Bolz-Weber, the Sarcastic Lutheran, discusses Psalm 45, the nerdiest love song in the Bible. Nadia is the pastor of the House for All Sinners and Saints in Denver and the author of Salvation on the Small Screen: 24 Hours of Christian Television.

Also, for those who didn’t know, all the sheet music from the book and podcast is available for free download at Church Publishing.

If you’re podcast savvy, the XML feed is here: http://www.isaaceverett.com/audio/emergentpsalterpodcast/podcast.xml

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Jazz pianist, vocalist, and composer Deanna Witkowski talks about Psalm 84, journeys, and pious bee hives. This podcast includes her song, “Let My Prayer Rise,” from her new album, “From This Place.”

Also, for those who didn’t know, all the sheet music from the book and podcast is available for free download at Church Publishing.

If you’re podcast savvy, the XML feed is here: http://www.isaaceverett.com/audio/emergentpsalterpodcast/podcast.xml

If you want to to listen to it on iTunes: click here: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=322056809

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Dear fellow Transmissioners,

¬†¬†If you are looking to find¬†a state of grace this weekend, I highly¬†recommend renting “The Soloist.”¬†¬† While I thought I’d be getting a typical story of “rich man¬†becomes better by helping poor,” what I received instead was a film that¬†engages the soul.

A film experience like that is a¬†rarity these days, and it’s even rarer to find a film that speaks the wisdom of¬†Christ without preaching at the audience.

¬†¬†”The Soloist”¬†tells the true story of Nathaniel Ayers, a musical prodigy and a schizophrenic.¬† He¬†was gifted and made his way to Julliard, before¬†his untreated illness brought him into anguish and ruin, leaving him¬†homeless and alone.¬† Years after his collapse, he meets Steve Lopez, a¬†LA Times reporter (Robert Downey Jr.) who is¬†doing fine in his career but is just as alone as¬†Ayers.

¬†¬† The two of them form a friendship, and¬†Lopez¬†learns about Ayers’ past while also learning about the realities of¬†Skid Row’s homeless population and the difficulties of trying to “cure” the mentally ill.¬†¬†At first, Ayers is Lopez’¬†best new story, and then Lopez takes him on as¬†his own private cause, which leads both of them in the wrong direction.¬† It is only in¬†deciding to be his friend, and knowing¬†the limits of their relationship, that he is able to create something that can last.

¬†¬† The film is¬†incredibly done.¬† The acting by Foxx is superb, and Downey continues to amaze me with¬†the depth he¬†brings to¬†his¬†roles.¬† This is one of the most mature performances I’ve ever seen by him.

  I recommend it here because I know that we as Christians feel an obligation to serve the needy, and this film does an incredible job of looking at how that could really look.  It challenges the idea that we can save the poor or cure them, and it challenges the notion that all severely damaged people need is love or faith to get better.  In the end, (spoiler) the steps that Nathaniel makes are just a few steps forward, but the real cured party is Lopez: he is able to see for the first time that true friendship demands integrity, respect, and sacrifice.

   I heartily recommend this film and hope you enjoy it.

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Singer, songwriter, and percussionist Lacey Brown discusses music, the mystery of worship, and ancient Israelite education. Also featuring music from the Church of the Apostles.

Also, for those who didn’t know, all the sheet music from the book and podcast is available for free download at Church Publishing.

If you’re podcast savvy, the XML feed is here: http://www.isaaceverett.com/audio/emergentpsalterpodcast/podcast.xml

If you want to to listen to it on iTunes: click here: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=322056809

If you’d rather just download it, the link is here: http://www.isaaceverett.com/audio/epp111.mp3

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Aidan Kavanaugh was professor of liturgy at the Divinity School of Yale University. He told the following story within a lecture delivered in August 1997 at the Theology Institute held at Holy Cross Abbey in Canon City, Colorado. It was printed in Liturgy 70 with Father Aidan’s kind permission, and was read to me last week by Craig Satterlee.  I thought it might be an interesting read for Transmissioners while we continue exploring our relationship with sacraments.

I have always rather liked the gruff robustness of the first rubric for baptism found in a late fourth-century church order which directs that the bishop enter the vestibule of the baptistry and say to the catechumens without commentary or apology only four words: “Take off your clothes.” There is no evidence that the assistants fainted or the catechumens asked what he meant. Catechesis and much prayer and fasting had led them to understand that the language of their passage this night in Christ from death to life would be the language of the bathhouse and the tomb – not that of the forum and the drawing room.

So they stripped and stood there, probably, faint from fasting , shivering from the cold of early Easter morning and with awe at what was about to be consummated; years of having their motives and lives scrutinized; years of hearing the word of God read and expounded at worship; years of being dismissed with prayer before the Faithful went on to celebrate the eucharist; years of having the doors to the assembly hall closed to them; years of seeing the tomb-like baptistry building only from without; years of hearing the old folks of the community tell hair-raising tales of what being a Christian had cost their own grandparents when the emperors were still pagan; years of running into a reticent and reverent vagueness concerning what was actually done by the Faithful at the breaking of bread and in that closed baptistry . . . . tonight all this was about to end as they stood here naked on a cold floor in the gloom of this eerie room.

Read the rest of this entry »

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So a few years ago I wrote a rather passionate post about the emergent church. I still think it’s a rather good piece of writing:

http://www.transmissioning.org/2007/01/27/kimball-macarthur-and-me/

Well, it turns out two years later, Phil Johnson felt the need to refute me in his essay “Joyriding on the Downgrade at Breakneck Speed: The Dark Side of Diversity,” published in Reforming or Conforming?

Check out the link – I’m in footnote seven.¬† Although I disagree with his presuppositions, it’s a very interesting read and worth a few minutes of your time.

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Agents of Future

Todd and Angie Fadel, members of the Bridge, an emergent community in Portland, discuss hope, participatory music, and being Agents of Future. Go buy their new album at Proost.

If you’re podcast savvy, the XML feed is here: http://www.isaaceverett.com/audio/emergentpsalterpodcast/podcast.xml

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Union Theological Seminary’s Professor of Old Testament, David Carr, exegetes the David and Bathsheba story and reads Psalm 51 over a bed of samples. Dr. Carr is the author of The Erotic Word: Sexuality, Spirituality, and the Bible and Writing on the Tablet of the Heart Origins of Scripture and Literature.

If you’re podcast savvy, the XML feed is here: http://www.isaaceverett.com/audio/emergentpsalterpodcast/podcast.xml

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This week, one of Transmission’s founding members, playwright, lyricist, and songwriter j. Snodgrass discusses Psalm 14, justice, and the prophetic tradition. If you’re interested in checking out some of Snodgrass’s other work, check out Captain Crash and the Loose Bricks.

If you’re podcast savvy, the XML feed is here: http://www.isaaceverett.com/audio/emergentpsalterpodcast/podcast.xml

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