All I need is Money

This morning I am writing from a hotel in Brandon, Florida. By next week this time, I will be back at work at New City Fellowship, so we jumped in the car (that's an exaggeration; more like 'we eased into the car.') and drove here to meet with Paul Richardson.

Paul is an old friend from CCM days, who now lives and works here at his own business, Path of Palms film and audio production studio. http://www.pathofpalms.com/

Long story short, Paul has shown a desire to work with me on my vintage products and he is also acting like I should record some new material. My master tapes are all here, and he is going to show us some remixes from Mourning Into Dancing this week. He has also already digitized my Faith Takes a Vision album, and that is what you are getting when you buy it from http://www.jameswardmusic.com/ or as a download at http://www.amazon.com/ or itunes.

And speaking of my web site, Paul and his staff rebuilt the site and made it a Google Checkout store now. It has improved our sales noticeably. The video performance of "I Belong to You" found on my new site is one that was shot by Paul at a Church of God convention in Atlanta 2 years ago.

So Paul is slowly becoming my most active business partner. Which brings me to today's entry title. I have so many good ideas, so much good music, strong emotional and spiritual support from my employer, NCF, so much talent to draw from, and so little money.

I remember hearing about my fellow musician friends doing daring and risky financial moves in order to advance their careers. I have read and talked about grants that are available for art and music projects. I have even already gotten a grant myself for a worship conference I directed.

So with God's help, it's time to go after the coins.

I'm going to talk to Paul today about the church's music web site and the potential for sales there. I'm going to apply to the Institute for Christian Worship for funding for NCF's cross-cultural music resources. And I'm going to stop acting like I can't do anything without money.

We'll get the money.

Cross-cultural Heaven

On Thursday of our northeast tour, we visited Bill and Barbara Edgar in Philadelphia. Bill has been encouraging me to write a book, even though he and I know that there are a lot of books out there on worship and music.

As I have been outlining the book I would write, I have thought about the title, "I'll take you there: Diversity in Music and Worship". The line from the 1972 Staples' Singers song kind of sums up my experience in a cross cultural church, where the worship service brings together many of the elements that make us so. In a sense, it is the calling on the musician to take the congregation there.

So few churches in this country are committed to cross-cultural worship, that I am thinking and outlining the arguments for such a congregation. There are the familiar ones about unity, reconciliation, and justice. But the one I hear said when a black church comes to visit our church with choir and pastor pulling up in a charter bus is simply, "this is the way heaven's going to be."

That statement is based on the passage in Revelation 7:9, "After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands."

If this is true, why are not more churches striving to be inclusive in their music and worship? Is it just too hard to blend here on earth with all our cultural differences? Or is there actually going to be layers of sound around the throne, with each culture praising God in its own way, but none actually singing the same thing?

C.S. Lewis, in his book The Great Divorce, paints a picture of heaven where everything is strong, and substantive, and plain people are beautiful. Don Piper, in his book 90 Minutes in Heaven tells of singing that blends together all styles and eras, but he didn't see different races and ethnic groups in his vision of glory.

I live in Tennessee; maybe cross-cultural worship is common in, say, San Francisco or Boston. Uh, I don't think so.

I know a place
Ain't nobody cryin'
Ain't nobody worried
Ain't no smilin' faces
Mmm, no no
Lyin' to the races
Help me, come on, come on
Somebody, help me now
I'll take you there

Tour Highlight #2

I played a concert two Sundays ago at Abbott Memorial Presbyterian Church. Old friends Steve and Mary Smallman were there. The concert was sponsored by Pastor Paul Warren, and he did a fair amount of promotion to other area churches.

The church is located in an old neighborhood in Baltimore that has characteristic urban atmosphere-- old buildings, bumpy streets, graffitti, and almost empty churches. Paul and his wife Phyllis have been at Abbott for 12 years, and the congregation finally believes they are serious. They have fixed up the manse next door where the Warren's have been living ever since they came.

The concert was in a dignified classic sanctuary on a really nice Yamaha grand piano that the church purchased shortly before the concert. The turn out was modest, which I remember from years of travelling and doing Christian concerts in the niche market of a niche market. I know Paul was probably disappointed that more old friends didn't pack into the house, and he planned a benefit offering for brother Andy's AIDs ministry in Ethiopia. www.abbottchurch.org/ethiopia/letter-from-andy-warren/
But this evening reminded me, and not really negatively, of the rich experiences touring the US, Canada, and parts of Europe, playing night after night for crowds just like this.

We went to Steve and Mary Smallman's for the night, and they are an intriguing family. Steve is a good musician, songwriter, and teaching elder in the PCA. But right now, he is doing, yes, film making. http://www.15four.com/

Steve seems to be having the time of his life, and success is written all over his face. Mary and he have two gifted sons who are in college, and Mary and he are the closest of friends. Steve flies to interesting places with film crews, and is currently employing 10 scruffy young computer and camera geeks. It warms my heart to see committed Christians doing art on the cutting edge, and doing it for the kingdom, too.

Our first Marriage Seminar

Last Saturday Beth and I attended our first marriage seminar. Beth suggested it as part of the sabbatical, and we found a Gary Chapman seminar online called "The Marriage You Always Wanted" and we registered for the Fredericksburg, VA weekend since we would be in that area on the 17th of October.

We're really glad we went! At right was a book we won, and do you know why we were the recipients of this drawing?! We were the longest married couple at the event. It was astonishing, since there were several couples there that were obviously as old as we. I guess it is an indicator as to how many remarried couples there are.

We are now on chapter 3 in this book and it has been very helpful (I won't say...stimulating.). One thing it recommended was that we share our sexual histories, and we talked about our childhood, our parents attitudes, our teenaged awakenings, and our college courtship. We laughed at our similar books in high school that amounted to romance novels.

We are thankful that, for all the awkwardness of the WWII generation on the subject of sex or even public display of affection, our parents obviously enjoyed one another outside the bedroom. One of the important ways to have a mutual enjoyment of sex is to have a strong relationship in other areas of life. How our parents behaved prepared us, for better or for worse, for our own view of sexuality.

Dr. Chapman is a pro. Every moment of the seminar was used wisely and thoughtfully with good video support and ample reference to his many books for further study. His most famous work is "The Five Love Languages." Neither of us knows what ours is, but it's probably going to come out in our conversation now.

Nor'easter!

We are churning up the east coast on the second trip of my sabbatical. I planned and planned the stops to make, the places to stay, and the mode of transportation as well as the approximate cost. Fortunately, there were two performances that each paid $500 which will help with the expense.

What a blessed time! From the beauty of the Shenandoah autumn leaves, to the quaint history of Dover, Delaware, we have tasted of the grace in quiet times, stimulating times, and spiritually envigorating.

On Sunday we worshipped in the AM with Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, home to Bob Kauflin, music director, and C.J. Mehaney, founders of the Sovereign Grace Churches. Bob and Julie welcomed us to their home where we caught up on our lives as musicians. We have been acquaintances since the 80s when Bob and Julie travelled with GLAD.

The worship service had a very young band, and the songs were contemporary praise songs in the style of the dominant culture. The noticeable thing about Sovereign Grace songs is the content-- much more theological than, say, Paul Baloche. After the service, Bob met us and took us to the store where he loaded us up with books and CDs.

The next day, we met for lunch at the inner harbor in Baltimore with Bob. We talked about many things, but mostly the idea and the logistics of getting New City's music up online. Bob said that http://www.sovereigngracemusic.org/albums was first funded by the ministry, and now pays for itself. His albums cost $15,000 to $30,000 to produce. It was very encouraging, especially his interest and obvious respect.

Thoughts on Hair Pieces

So I'm thinking about being bald as a man in my fifties. I had thick hair when I was young, and up until I was forty or so, I wore my hair full, even with a receding hairline. Now I wear it very short like Jason Statham, and I find it to be a natural part of my life cycle to be bald. I use Jason Statham as an example, because he does not have his head shaved like bald men do, who want to be hip looking.

Which brings up the subject of hair piece wigs for men. What does a man have to think to get a hair piece? Is he advised to do so by a secretary or publicist who says that his face will be stronger and more effectively framed by a clear hairline? Is he trying to look younger? Some men with hair pieces have gray or salt and pepper hair pieces (wigs). Does that make one look younger? Have these men gone to shrinks or counselors who have told them to get a wig to feel better about themselves and to be more confident?

Well, I feel confident because I don't have a wig. I believe that a bald man, with his hair cut trim, shows greater confidence in the normal genetic fact of hair loss, and confidence that being bald is a normal part of aging and growing more mature, and finally, that it is a God-given part of one's appearance. To wear a hair piece is to contradict the shape of one's face, one's age, and one's very physical appearance.

What is it like to wear a wig? Do you have to powder your head first? Does it fit very snugly so that it won't fly off? Does it make you sweat? Does it become a natural feeling like wearing glasses or a woman wearing a bra?

Do you take it off at night? Do you worry when you have to go out on a windy day? Are you concerned when you might be put in a position of revealing your baldness, like when you're going camping with friends? Is it maintenance free, or must one wash it daily and dry it with a soft special towel? Do you keep it on a styrofoam head on your dresser?

Is the feeling that someone is looking at your head and staring at your false hair a source of anxiety or do you wear a wig because you don't care what others think?

Now, I know, everyone would rather keep their hair. I was in the entertainment business, and I saw my hairline receding with dismay and disappointment, while friends of mine who were accountants kept tight, strong hair lines. Why did I have to lose it when having a youthful appearance was obviously important in the pop music business? I knew two members of Petra, a rock band, who got wigs, including the founder of the group.

Well, I guess I'm not a candidate for a hair piece. "Ah, but you're thinking about it, so you must be considering it," you say. Uh, nah.

Ten Cool Things I did ths week:

1. I got a haircut.
2. I actually mowed the back lawn. My shoulder is at the place now where I need more activity to build it up.
3. Beth and I went to see Dr. Shah, my rheumatologist, and I let him draw some fluid out of my thumb joint. Just the thought is kind of cool.
4. I bought a 29-key keyboard to go with my new slim laptop that NCF gave me right before the sabbatical. With music software on the computer, I can do MIDI work anywhere with the Axiom 25.
5. I fixed one of my gutters that was hanging low.
6. I drove to Saint Louis with Beth and we visited Kirk and Sarah and their kids.
7. In Saint Louis, we went to see the arch and pretended to have races in the grass with Sam, Kirk's boy.
8. We went to NCF-STL Sunday morning and I played keys for Kirk's praise band.
9. Sunday evening was a brief concert set at Covenant Presbyterian Church. The music director, Kathy Chappell and I had talked about having a choir as part of the set, and some 50 singers showed up! She conducted two of my choral pieces, "Who Can Separate Us," and, yes, "Death is Ended." "Separate" was not soulful, but rich and smooth. Kirk played, too, and we were compensated generously!
10. We had lunch with college classmate, Tim Belz. Tim is a constitutional lawyer and he took us to Citygarden, a new terraced area downtown Saint Louis with multiple sculptures.
11. I continued to read "The Gift" and to dwell on the esoteric life of being an artist.
12. I reformatted Windows XP on Beth's computer and reloaded her drivers and software. Now she's got Adobe Flash!

Reading, Writing, and Computership

I seem to have skipped a week of my sabbatical; I should have made an entry last Monday, and it's Friday night. But it's been a good week and a half of getting some reading done, writing two songs, and working on Beth's laptop to get it up to speed.

I had the special experience last Sunday and Monday of preparing for a recording session by finishing a new song I had an idea for, but the session on Monday made me sit down and work on it with the intention of completing a recordable, presentable tune for my children's album.

This song is tentatively entitled "That's What I want to Be" and is a series of verses about professions that kids would identify with. First verse, "I want to be a firefighter," second verse, "I want to be a veterinarian" and third verse, "I want to be a ballet dancer," and so on. Each verse then includes some short phrases summarizing that job's experience.

As my grandchildren grow older, I see them responding to my music-- my playing, but also to my songs. I want the song to take the listener through a series of jobs with the goal of being what God wants me to be. Some of the jobs are performed in front of people and others are quiet, unassuming jobs like a high school crossing guard. Ultimately, the children will sing "I want to be a lot like Jesus."

Songwriting is easier now in some ways-- I have written enough to know how to craft one, but it's harder in that I am no longer writing for concerts or recordings. If I were in Nashville, or at least tied into the publishing business, I might be writing songs for other people. Finishing the sketch of this new novelty song was envigorating!

I hae also been working this week on revising my course for Westminster Theological Seminary's winter term 2010. The course is called "Music and Worship in the Changing Church" and the church is definitely changing!

When I started teaching this 5 day, 2 credit course, the two major renewal movements of recent years were Charismatic worship, springing out of the 1960s and 70s Jesus Movement, and then the Church Growth trend started by Willow Creek Community Church and Bill Hybels in the suburbs of Chicago in the early 80s.

Then the return to liturgical worship was defined by Robert Webber in 1984 in his book "The Canterbury Trail" in which Webber describes why a
more Anglican approach to worship had captured the yearning of so many for authenticity. The last time the course was taught it included a brief discussion of Orthodoxy and the music of the Eastern Orthodox liturgy.

But now, there are two major new branches of worship to be addressed in our concise course and they are looming large in the minds of seminarians far more than Willow Creek. One would be the Emerging Church, and the other would be the PCA's own phenomenon, Redeemer Presbyterian in New York. Both are fascinating, and both have strong artistic treatments in their forms of worship.

Then the continuing maturing of contemporary hymnody through the ministries of RUF hymns, and the examples of Keith Getty and Stuart Townend has encouraged so many in the Reformed tradition and beyond.

This course is getting bigger, and needs to be streamlined!

Finally, the church gave me a laptop to take with me on my way out the door in August, and now I can sit in my Lazyboy with a computer on my lap, and write in my blog like my daughter does! I've been trying to figure out what is wrong with Beth's 5-year-old lap top, since it won't load Adobe Flash Player, and no videos show on her machine. I'm about to embark on the dubious task of reloading Windows XP and starting over with her HP pavilion zd7000. Sigh.

Cool things I did this week:
1. I have been very successful with my physical therapy, and I have regained 90% range of motion.
2. Beth and I went to visit Dick and Debbie Blackman, and got to laugh, read and pray with them.
3. We bought one of Maria Cardillo's photos at the Clotheline Art Show.
4. I started "The Art of Worship" by Greg Scheer.
5. I had breakfast on Saturday with Gary Hicks and we talked about his new challenge of being let go by Christ United Methodist Church
6.