Signs You Are An Adult

Sings That You Are Really An Adult,
by Matthew Westerholm

Here’s mine!  But you don’t have to BE an adult to know the signs.

1. The Propect of an All-Nighter sounds terrible.
If I asked my six-year-old if he wanted to stay up all night, he’d love me forever.

College students drag around campus, but secretly it’s a badge of honor:  “I’ve been up for 39 straight hours, man, getting ready for my recital.”  That might have been a mistake.   I doubt the guy who won the Boston Marathon pulled an all-nighter to get ready for it.

2. You consider vanilla a flavor.  And really do enjoy it.
Ask a kid if he wants vanilla or chocolate.  He’ll pick chocolate every time and, if he’s honest, shoot you a look that means “Is that really a choice?”

3. You pay a mortgage.
A 14-year-old can (sadly) have a baby.  It takes an adult to have a mortgage.

NOW IT’S YOUR TURN.

Slow week.

For blogging! In the real world, it’s “go time”.

It’s the week before finals, and I’ve got a huge paper due. Right now, I’m writing on the use of figurative language in the book of Jude. Anybody know what “twice dead” (verse 12) means?

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Sorry for the delay on the posts. Try this for a bit.

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Your “Prayer Life” is better than you think

To get this whole paradigm, make sure you read the first post, entitled “There’s No Such Thing As Worship Songs.”

The main comment that I’ve received on this paradigm is “If there’s no such thing as worship songs, what about all these categories for songs that we have?” Really good.I think these are types of prayers or types of exhortations.

Paul’s categories of “psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs” refer to different compositional origins of songs rather than comprehensive delineations of Christian worship. (See Ralph Martin, “Worship In The Early Church” Eerdmans, pgs. 39-52)

Let’s just brainstorm a minute about different categories of songs:

• Thanksgiving songs,
• adoration songs,
• celebration songs,
• repentance and confession songs,
• petition songs,

. . . all of these are prayers.   Hey — be encouraged — your prayer life is probably better than you think.  Make sure sung prayers are included in your regular practice.

Exhortations are usually referred to in songs that are:

• creedal,
• gathering,
• encouraging,
• sending/benedictory.

Let me just write for a quick second about how this applies to the prepared/spontaneous debate. Since worship songs directed to God are actually sung prayers,

• every church that believes in spontaneous prayer (heart-felt prayers composed in the moment) should not be afraid of spontaneous songs. However, spontaneous songs must be subjected to the same criteria that spontaneous prayers must uphold: doctrinal accuracy, thematic clarity, and timeliness.
• churches that employ prepared songs (song that were written out ahead of time) should not be afraid of prepared prayers. However, prepared prayers must be heart-felt and delivered passionately, just as prepared songs should be as well.

NEXT -  what does this mean for worship leaders?!?

There’s No Such Thing As Worship Songs

That blog title was supposed to grab your attention. Did it work?

Let me try to defend this sentence instead: “The term ‘worship song’ is unhelpful.”  There’s TWO types of songs we sing as a gathered church:

1. Songs sung to the Lord.
2. Songs sung to each other.

Even some songs that try to do both can usually be divided into subsections that fall into these categories.  Songs that do neither of these things . . . I’m not sure what they’re doing.

The first type of song (a song sung to the Lord) is really a prayer.  Forget about the music (we’ll get to that in a minute) and think about it.  Look at the words: Open The Eyes of My Heart, Blessed Be Your Name . . . PRAYERS.

The second type of song (a song sung to each other) is really an exhortation.  Forget the music and look at those words: All Hail The Power Of Jesus Name, How Firm A Foundation, How Great Is Our God (“sing with me”), Mighty To Save . . . EXHORTATION.

Now, let’s add the music back in.

When a congregation sings a prayer or exhortation, (at least) two wonderful things happen.  The RHYTHM of the song allows the church to pray/exhort with UNITY.  The MELODY of the song allows the congregation to pray/exhort with PASSION.

This perspective gives a lot of clarity to many confusing aspects in “worship world”.  So, I’d like to tease this idea out further over the next week or two.

• What does this mean for the “Worship Leader”?
• What sort of spiritual maturity is required of a worship leader or team?
• What about the male/female worship leader debate?
• Special music?  Should we do it?
• What makes a “worship song” “work”?  (That’s a lot of “quote marks”!) What order do “worship songs” work in?
• Non-Christians on the worship team?

Let’s settle all of this in the next fourteen days.    Tune in.

I’m being tested . . .

by a test. From a professor. In my seminary class tonight.

Mustn’t blog.

Must. Not. Blog.

Must. study.

FUN POSTS COMING IN THE NEXT TWO DAYS.

Cornerstone’s New Program

Maybe you know, maybe you don’t: My main job is working at Cornerstone University as their Director of Worship Arts. We’re starting up a new Worship Arts program this fall. Know anybody who might be interested? Here’s the letter I send to prospective students:

My name is Matthew Westerholm and I work at Cornerstone University, heading up the Worship Arts Music major. Our admissions office told me that said you have applied and are interested in our program, and so I’m sending you an email.

Cornerstone is launching this brand-new program this next fall. It combines three different branches of our school:

1) music/fine-arts classes;
2) media/sound/video classes; and
3) Bible/ministry classes.

And that’s just classes. But there’s more to an education than just classes.

4) Location: Our campus is in Grand Rapids, which puts it within driving distance of an incredible spectrum of churches: Liturgical, traditional, contemporary, cutting edge . . . they’re all in Grand Rapids. There’s no better place to be to experience worship services OR to land a great internship.
5) Chapel: Cornerstone has chapel services four times a week with seven praise teams ministering in a rotation. This gives you a great opportunity to grow your abilities and gain experience by actually practicing your craft in front of about 600 classmates, faculty and staff on a regular basis.

These five things combine to make you not only VERY hire-able, but ultimately fruitful as you serve Jesus Christ.

If interested, you can find out more about my background and who I am here. And if you have any questions, concerns, or just need the inside scoop on how stuff works, give me a shout.

<
Matthew Westerholm

Director of Worship Arts
Cornerstone University

matthew_d_westerholm {at] cornerstone dot edu
616.254.1650 x1390

Levels of Listening

Listening, listening . . . always listening. I find it helpful to break down my listening into three categories:

Level 1) Soak it in. It’s on, and I’m hearing it.

Level 2) Intense listening. For some reason, the music speaks to me, and I’m on a quest to find out why. Is there some rhythmic element that’s fascinating? Harmonic? Melodic or instrumentation? What’s grabbing me?

Sometimes, I’ll bring my ipod to the practice room and just start playing along. There’s not a ton of good jazz musicians in Grand Rapids (and if there are, they aren’t hanging out with me), so I’ll “sit in” with Miles Davis for a half-hour or so and just play along.

Level 3) Transcription. I have been so moved by some part of listening level “2″ that I’m going to figure it out and incorporate it into my own playing. Usually, I’ll write the idea down in a music notebook in one key and work on learning it in all twelve. (With a metronome, but that’s a different post.)

Sound nerdy? [pushes glasses up on face] It is. But it’s how I grow as a musician.

WHAT ABOUT YOU? What are you hearing?

A New Home

After about six months of looking, Lisa and I seem to have found our new home.  Sure, it may be premature, but I’d rather be premature than immature.

You can see a picture of the house here.

We have been staying in an apartment, which has been nice in one sense.  After being separated from each other for three months, it is nice to be together. However, 560 square feet (this includes the tub and kitchen cabinets) for five people is a little TOO together. So, in a second and more accurate sense, it has not been great.

I have three small boys (Ethan – 6; Owen – 4; and Levi – 20 mo) and they are active.  My wife and I BUTTER the boys so they can slide around the apartment more easily.  One day, while Lisa was taking a nap, the two older boys got in a fight.  I split them up by sending Owen to his room, Levi into the family room.  Ethan turned to me and asked “Do you want me to go into the bathroom?”  A fair question.

This experience has drawn our attention up to our true home: heaven.

The verse that the Lord has given us to remind us of this is Psalm 23:6, which says “… I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.“  Ultimately, it is His dwelling that we were built to enjoy and long for.  And to remind us of this important truth even after we move it, we are looking for a calligraphy sign that we can put in the entryway.

New Song coming.

I’ve been stewing over a new song for about two weeks now, and today I had a real break through: I NEED SOMEONE TO HELP ME FINISH IT.

It feels good to type that.

So, I hung out with my brother, Josh, this afternoon and banged it around. He’s got a really clear vision of it now, and it won’t be long before it’s posted up here.

A little teaser? How about the pre-chorus:

The kingdom of this world’s become
the kingdom of our God and of His Son
And He is going to reign,
Forever He will reign,
Forever and ever.