Class

 The worship class met last week--online only, because my wrist is broken and I was still getting used to this cast. But we will be online each session anyway, as half the students are remote. I think, in retrospect, (and because I generally try to make the best of things) that this was useful because we could put the whole class in breakout rooms for introductions. 

Among the things I love about Trinity International University is that the I in TIU is really a thing. At the College, and even more so at the Divinity School (TEDS), we have a global community of students. Easily 25% of the students in my worship course are not native English speakers; of those we have several trilingual students. A fair number are experienced in ministry and are enrolled in the MDiv program to increase their effectiveness and strengthen their credentials. 

So I look forward to learning every bit as much as to teaching.

We do not meet today, the Martin Luther King holiday. I will write some thoughts about that later. For now I am limiting my one-handed typing time while my bones heal.

 

The Pastor's Bookshelf redux

 Martin Luther said that he did not approve someone for ministry who did not know and appreciate music. (I'll get around to that quotation more accurately and specifically later.) To which I would add: I can't imagine an effective pastoral minister who is not an avid reader. While I will use the image of the bookshelf here, I am less concerned that someone hold and read a physical printed artifact than that they read--deeply and widely. 

I'm thinking about that as I prepare to teach, for the first time, a seminary course, "Christian Worship and Pastoral Practice." I was invited to teach the course by the retiring professor who also gave me his notes, syllabus, and online resources. (Pro tip: when teaching an existing course for the first time, find and use the best syllabus and materials that someone else has developed. Then, after you've gone through the course once, make it your own.) The reading list and other recommendations were appropriate to the breadth of the course, and represent some of the best authors and practitioners. 

Naturally, though, I had some ideas of my own. So it was an interesting and fun challenge to make this part of the syllabus mine, without reinventing the whole list. (For those who may want to peruse it, see the note at the end of this post.) One significant change I made was to limit the required text to a single item, Constance Cherry's The Worship Architect. There is a LOT of other required reading, but students will choose a single title from each of five categories; the idea is that students reading in the same theme, from different authors, will have richer classroom discussions. 

In addition to the five categories, the syllabus lists titles that I will reference in class, and other resources under the headings of "worship" and "pastoral ministry." I hope that students will find this list useful as they consider how to stock their own ministry bookshelves. I hope students will read broadly and deeply in this class, and continue to do so in ministry, reading beyond what they find in Twitter, blogs, podcasts, and YouTube. All of which they (and I) will continue to benefit from.

 Along that line, I have just been introduced to a reading challenge for 2022**. I won't commit to all of the categories in this year, but it's a great constellation of areas in which an evangelical pastor ought to be reading. I do fault it for a paucity of fiction, and the complete absence of poetry--though some of the listed categories can accommodate those genres. And despite that criticism, I will keep this checklist in my "q.v." folder.

I have written on the "bookshelf" before. You can find those at THIS query. 

Read on!

AND FOR THOSE WHO DARE, if you'd like to see the reading portion of my syllabus for "Christian Worship and Pastoral Practice" leave your name and email in Comments. Your comment and email will not be published.

** upon reading more deeply in the group/site from which this commendable list comes, I want to distance myself from some of the more conservative elements of the organization. I am rightly challenged to rigorous reading, but do not embrace some (many?) of the views expressed throughout the website.

Back in (a different) saddle again

 Whatever 2022 brings, it looks like starting off well. 

I left my position at College Church in Wheaton (October 2012) to finish a MA in Historical Theology, with plans to pursue a ThD and/concurrent with a return to church music and worship ministry. As they say (inaccurately quoted here), "we make our plans, and God laughs." God may laugh, but he does not abandon us. And in my particular case, God kept me active in my vocation . . . but without a church gig to in which to exercise it.

So I have rather enjoyed eight years of full-time teaching (following one year as an adjunct) at Trinity College in Trinity International University. There I have taught courses related to music history (my first academic discipline) and worship music (my experience and first love). That all began to wrap up when TIU chose to close the music department effective May 2021. (No grumbling here, but this is still a very sore issue, and I'm happy to talk about it offline :~)

May 2021 began what I thought would be semi-retirement. I planned to teach (adjunct) the music history sequence--ending at Trinity College the way I began! nice, that symmetry--and directing the Trinity Choir. Then a seminary prof (Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, TEDS) called and asked if I would teach the MDiv course in worship and pastoral ministry. Umm, yes please! So that was going to be my last year of teaching. And it seemed pretty good to me.

In August I received a call from the TEDS dean, inviting me to take a one-year, full-time position. This would include what I had already signed on for, plus TEDS director of chapel, and assist the Assistant Dean for undergraduate Bible and ministry students. Will this be my final year of teaching? Of teaching full-time? Of exercising my calling in a public manner? God knows, and I'm content to have him laugh at my ideas.

So anyway, teaching the seminary course, Christian Worship and Pastoral Practice, gives me a chance to again reflect upon and write along the topic for which this blog was established. Here we go . . . again!

So, what are you reading these days?

As I enter my seventh year teaching full time (seven? how is that possible?) I am  returning again to the "music and worship" part of the cycle. My role at Trinity International University is a niche that suits me well -- and I hope the students and College, too -- with an academic background in music history and historical theology plus three decades of full-time pastoral music ministry. I teach a three-semester sequence in music history, and a two-semester sequence of core courses for church music and the College's new BA in Worship. This is my "worship year."

My current summer reading stack is about six books deep (all in progress) with a few others in line. I don't think I'm going to get through them all by the start of the semester. Books in both stacks fall into two categories:
* Books that are new, or at least new to me.
* Books that I started by didn't finish, or that I bought and didn't start.

Books find their way to my list by various routes: reviews in publications, publisher catalogs, recommendations or citations, and random free copies. I guess I am not a systematic reader-scholar . . . this may (almost certainly does) explain why I do not have a doctorate!

So, what is in my current stack?

Immanuel Kant, Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and the Sublime

Evelyn Underhill, Worship 

Allen P. Ross, Recalling the Hope of Glory: Biblical worship from the Garden to the new creation 

Greg Scheer, Essential Worship: A Handbook for Leaders

Gerardo Marti, Worship Across the Racial Divide: Religious Music and the Multiracial Congregation 

Debra Rienstra and Ron Rienstra, Worship Words: Discipling language for faithful ministry 

Still to be cracked before the fall semester:

Geoffrey Wainwright, Doxology: The Praise of God in Worship, Doctrind, and Life--a Systematic Theology 

George Ellis ande William H. Schubert, eds., Reflections from the Heart of Educational Inquiry 

Kathleen S. Smith, Stilling the Storm: Worship and Congregational Leadership in Difficult Times 

These lists do not include a tall stack of books that I need to keep fresh as I prepare for the year ahead--textbooks I have used and that I am re-evaluating, recommended reading lists, supplemental material for my own presentations and to recommend to students, and so on.

As I read, I often consider the privileges I had serving as a worship pastor. In earlier posts I have reflected on my bookshelves. These days I ask myself, "will my students acquire books, develop a core working library of wisdom, inspiration, and practical ideas? Or will they rely on the quick access of the internet--blogs, YouTube, online courses, eBooks--as admittedly I also find myself doing? What should my approach be to the future pastoral musician in regard to lifelong learning, exploring the past as well as living in the present?  Among the students I have worked with over the past few years, a surprising (and, to me, encouraging) number still say they prefer to hold and read a physical book; there are those who purposely are building up their ministry library. At the same time, they live in the digital world--they hold dual passports to learning.

I probably don't have many years of full-time teaching in my future. While I'm at it, I continue to enjoy the books I have (read, to be finished, and to be started), look for more books to read, and pray I will be a good steward of the reading I am privileged to engage.

I've Fallen: a song for aging worship leaders

I think I've had too much time away this season.

This title struck me yesterday, and I wondered whether it was more apt for a new Rolling Stones release/tour, or a worship song for likewise aging worship leaders. Since I don't think I could write lyrics for the Stones . . .
I’ve Fallen and I Can’t Get Up

Verse 1

My life was stuck in miry clay

            The net they set for me had sprung

            I lay there till the break of day

            And then, O Lord, you loosed my tongue—

Chorus

            I’ve fallen (fallen) and I can’t get up [repeat]

            I’ve fallen (fallen) and I can’t get up without you.

Repeat V1 and C

Bridge

            Lift me up

            Fill my mouth

            Set on me a crown of gold.

Verse 2

            I thought my foot had nearly slipped

            And then I tried to catch myself      

            If not for you I’d break a hip

            And put my life-plans on the shelf.

Chorus

Repeat Chorus

Outro [ortho]

Chuck King 30 Dec 2018

 

Milestone

It was flagged by a string of “on this day” Facebook memories. Otherwise I might have missed it. No, rather I would not have anticipated it. On the day it was marked in my Bible—in the Psalms and Proverbs readings: “Oct. 7, 2012, last day at College Church.” And so there it was, my first date and day anniversary, Sunday,October 7.

Six years ago today I began life apart from full-time music ministry. Twenty-seven years of Sundays, with up to four services per Sunday; twenty-seven years of weekly choir rehearsals, planning, meetings; twenty-seven years of joy and disappointment, successes and failures, kudos and brickbats.

I thought I would take a year off to finish a master’s degree, probably return to church work, and jump into a Th.D. program somewhere, somehow. I had no idea. But then, I’ve never had any clear idea—never successfully predicted—what “the next thing” would be!

So, this seems like a good time to reflect, to be grateful, to consider the grace that has filled the past six years.

Finishing the MA in Historical Theology at Wheaton Graduate School was a thrilling year. Not since my graduate work at Northwestern had I been so satisfied and challenged intellectually. A year of reading and writing, of classroom interaction and hanging out with people a lot smarter than I am . . . yeah, that was great. And during that year, Karen and I again learned what it means to not really know how our finances were going to work out; we re-learned that no one really knows what each day will bring, and that for decades we had just acted as if we did know. It was exciting to again know that we were living by faith.

Writing my MA thesis was a dream come true. And whilst completing that work, I was surprised by an invitation to interview, then accept an offer to teach music history at Trinity College, Deerfield IL.  What I thought would be my life, back at Northwestern, was creeping into my life all these years later. A year as adjunct was followed by a year’s appointment as Visiting Assistant Professor, renewed a few times, and then this past spring turned into a three-year renewable appointment. Teaching—long a dream—has been hard and challenging and fun and rewarding. A year ago I was honored to be handed the baton for the Trinity Concert Choir. Which is above and beyond all that I could have asked or imagined six years ago.

Life with Karen gets richer and more fun all the time. But during these six years both of her parents have entered their eternal reward. She (and to a lesser extent, we) spent a lot of time back and forth between our home and her parents’. She was with each of them when they passed. Her parents’ generation of family is gone: a sobering reality as we entered our sixties.

I have learned some things about myself (chronicled elsewhere) that have put in perspective aspects, memories, and challenges of my past.  Perhaps most importantly, I have learned that some of my perceived failures were lifelong patterns related to depression; and that others were not in fact my weaknesses but the fault(s) and result(s)—intended or otherwise—of spiritual leadership. Owning my own problems, and recognizing where I have been wronged, is making my late-life career much more manageable and fun.

But the bottom-line (for now at least) is that I am truly done working in the church on a full-time basis. While I deeply miss the weekly church choir rehearsal, and the privilege of contributing to the weekly morning service, there is nothing else I miss about church work. Emphasize nothing. So it has been a special blessing to have had two small church choirs, accounting for nearly three of the six years I have been away from College Church. I have been able to work with that special beloved breed—the volunteer church choir—without the complications of church staff life. I have missed the privilege of choosing congregational music, but for my psychic health and simply as a reality of time available, these have been perfect brief godsends. Of course even now I qualify that bottom-line. Because I will not presume to know what God has in store for Karen and me; not presume that there isn’t some circumstance in which it will become obvious that I belong back in the church. I have not relinquished that part of my identity by which many still know me: pastor. But I am content, and eager to get back to campus today!

All Psalms All the Time

Well, not quite all the psalms, and I don’t know how long this resource will be available.

 

A subscription to Spotify Premium is not only a self-indulgence, it is good for my mental health (the Spotify ads make me angry) and it keeps me exploring and learning new music. It is also—it turns out—good for my soul. (Though, full disclosure, as I write this I am listening to an Enrico Morricone playlist of western movie soundtracks.)

Weekly and monthly playlists show up in the many “Genres & Moods” categories. I always look at what’s on offer in the Classical Category. (For a brief post on the amazing Symphonies playlist, see my other blog.) Right after Thanksgiving a new playlist appeared: 150 Psalms in Classical Music. Brilliant! With my pattern of daily psalm readings, this is how I would engage the psalms through December.

And what a playlist! It includes Gregorian chant, Anglican chant, and newly composed chant. Genevan psalms and German Baroque settings. Settings in Latin, Hebrew, English, German, French, and more. Tracks lasting barely two minutes, and pieces up to fifteen minutes. It is a rich resource of the splendid variety of musical engagement with that most musical heart of the Bible.

Was it well curated? That’s a tough call. I came to terms with it by acknowledging that it is not called “The Complete Book of Psalms in Classical Music,” nor “All 150 Psalms in Classical Music.” Not least because of course musical settings of every complete psalm is a lot of music! Think of Psalm 119 alone—golly. But as to its including all psalms, where there’s the catch.

Because the curator of this list apparently did not take into account that the Latin Bible—while numbering psalms 1 through 150—numbers the psalms differently from the Hebrew and Protestant Bibles. (Long story there, and an interesting one, and I have to say that the Latin numbering has a supportable logic to it.)

So, for example, the list includes multiple versions of some psalms, noting only the numbering used by the composers, and in the process skips over psalms that got lost in the cracks. For example (the first one I noticed) Psalm 19 (Latin: Exaudiat te Dominus) is the English Psalm 20. So, the list has the same text in Latin and in English, but does not have a musical setting of the Hebrew/English Psalm 19 (the heavens declare the glory of God—of which there are many excellent musical settings). I won’t list the many cases; you get the point.

And in any case, even though I am a bit OCD about lists like this (“geez Louise, how hard would it be to get this right and make it complete?!?”) the playlist was such a gift to me that I would be an ingrate to find fault with it. Bravo, Spotify! Thank you! (Also, how do I get a job building Spotify playlists?) A very brief list of the composers I was surprised to hear includes Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Krzysztof Pendercki. I was delighted to hear psalms recorded by a friend, and a psalm commissioned by an organization I admire. I loved seeing the albums from which the psalms were selected (that alone will provide me many hours of exploring). The sheer variety of musical diversity within the broad category of “classical” is refreshing, stunning, and challenging.

Two takeaway thoughts about this list and the experience of listening through it. (In my OCD way: sequentially, five psalms a day. Some things don’t change.)

1—Someone at Spotify seemed to think there is enough interest is classical sacred music to warrant this playlist. Not to be snarky (really) but I wonder if it is even possible to find all 150 psalms in contemporary Christian musical styles? It would be interesting to attempt—but I leave that for someone with a higher tolerance than I have. Only, let such a list be psalm settings, not musical settings of random verses from the psalms. That is the challenge.

2—Over and over through December I was struck with the paucity of psalm singing in the churches I attend. While much of the so-called evangelical church debates what are hymns and spiritual songs, and what should be their balance in services, hardly anyone is faithfully, diligently, respectfully, historically attending to the first part of St. Paul’s injunction: sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs . . .