glenn packiam's blog

Rethinking "Every Tribe and Tongue"

[The following piece was written for Worship Leader/Song Discovery Magazine. What does it mean to "take worship to the nations"? It's a complex and layered subject...one that demands more a short piece like this. But perhaps this will be enough to get the conversation started. Here's my perspective as a worship leader who's grown up on both sides of the world. This post will link to the full article at SongDiscovery.com.]

As the famous American worship leaders returned to the table with platefuls of aromatic curries and rice boiled in coconut milk, their faces wrinkled with curious interest in something other than their discoveries at the buffet line. It was the faint lines of music drifting through the humid air. The sultry notes being squeaked out on a stringed instrument defied conventional pitch. And the light tapping on small bongo-like drums had no sense of "groove" or, for that matter, time signature. 

"Why don't Malaysians write worship songs like this-in their own style?" blurted one of the Americans. Because it's awful, is what I thought....[Click HERE to read the FULL ARTICLE]

Are Worship Pastors Becoming Extinct?

 Over the past seven years, I have served as the Director of the New Life School of Worship, a 9-month program designed to train worship leaders for local churches. We believe that to effectively prepare our students for local church worship ministry they need to be trained in more than music. They need to be grounded in theology, familiar with church history, and responsible with their handling of the Scriptures. Moreover, they need to learn what it means to be a pastor: to shepherd the people under their care. 

But it seems that some churches aren't looking for that. They would prefer a musician who can lead the "singing", oversee the tech team, and produce recordings of their original songs. None of these are bad expectations, of course. But are we looking for these trade skills at the expense of other, more essential pastoral qualities? Are worship leaders simply highly skilled technicians who have a "steady gig" at a church? 

Today's worship leader may spend more time with his Macbook than with a real book. She may be more familiar with GarageBand than the people in her band. He may be better versed with directing the choir than providing spiritual direction. 

Of course, the trade side of being a worship leader and the pastoral side are not mutually exclusive. A person can be good at Pro Tools and at pastoring the people on his team. The trouble is we've lost the sacredness of the pastoral vocation. Any person who says their core role is to pray, study, and provide spiritual direction is not as "useful" to the corporation we call church. What else can you do? we ask. Then we proceed to fill so much of their time time with scheduling bands, arranging music, and working with the latest recording software that they are no longer doing any pastoral work. Musicians and singers become cogs in a wheel, things we use to fill slots. True, the administration needs to be done. And yes, musical excellence is valuable. But at what price?

Ross Parsley, the long-time worship pastor here at New Life, is fond of saying that music ministry is not about music; it's about people. Worship ministry is first a sort of a "helps" ministry that serves the Body of Christ. But more to the point, it is an excuse for us to connect with one another. Music is the table we gather around, the place where we see each other face to face, and then learn how to walk alongside one another in this life of faith.

Perhaps the question every church who hires a worship pastor-- and every aspiring worship pastor-- should answer is this: What will Jesus ask us about: the music we produced, the services we programmed? Or the people we pastored, the sheep we fed?

Take time today and think about the people on your team. Pray for them. Pick up the phone and call them. Break bread with them. Talk to them about more than the setlist. Remember your calling as a worship pastor, not a music program manager. Clear some of the clutter from your week. Maybe it's time to appoint others to do the tasks that are keeping you from your role as a shepherd. You have never met a mere mortal. Our music will not last forever; these people will.

Rethinking The Way We Worship (Reflections on Deuteronomy 12)

It is probably not surprising to you that God has an opinion about the way we worship. As is the case with so many other things, God is not only interested in our doing of a particular thing but in how we are doing it. Obedience is not just about right action or right result; it's also about right "way". Jesus was obedient, even to death on the cross. The central temptation of Jesus was to get Him to do God's work in the Devil's way. Much has been written about the three temptations Jesus faced in this regard, from Dostoevsky to Eugene Peterson.

When this principle is applied to worship, however, the discussion usually becomes about physical actions: God wants us to lift our hands, dance, clap, etc, we say. And that may be true. The one who made us just might know something about what helps engage our whole being in worship. But I read something in Deuteronomy today that made think of a few other "ways" our worship must be:

"Do not worship the Lord your God in the way these pagan peoples worship their gods." Deut. 12:4 (NLT)

The Book of Deuteronomy puts a great emphasis on avoiding idolatry. Even Deuteronomy 12 opens with an injunction to destroy pagan shrines and every trace of idolatry, echoing a theme that has surfaced several times in the preceding chapters. But God doesn't stop there. It wasn't enough to not worship idols; they were not to worship Yahweh in the way pagans worshipped idols. So, what were the ways pagans worshipped their gods? Are those ways still prevalent in how people in our culture worship success or fame or wealth? In what ways was the worship of Yahweh to be different from pagan worship? Based on Deuteronomy 12, here are some thoughts on the way we worship our God:

1. Be Communal Not Privatized
The first thing God says about His "way" of worship as opposed to the pagans is about place. "Rather, you must seek the Lord your God at the place of worship he himself will choose from among all the tribes-- the place where his name is honored." That specific place is where they are to bring their burnt offerings, sacrifices, tithes, sacred offerings, offerings to fulfill a vow, voluntary offerings, offerings of the firstborn of their flocks (vs.6, 10-11). You get the point. But in case you missed it, Moses goes on: "Be careful not to sacrifice your burnt offerings just anywhere you like. You may do so only at the place the Lord will choose within one of your tribal territories" (vs. 13-14a). 

In John 4 Jesus helps us understand that there is nothing inherently sacred about a geographic location anymore. It is worshippers who worship in spirit and in truth that the Father is after. But wherever those worshippers gather in His name, there He is. And every gathering has a place just as every family has a home. Place matters because that’s where the gathering is. By specifying a location for their worship in Deuteronomy, God was teaching Israel that worship was not a private matter. They could not freely offer sacrifices anywhere they liked. It had to be at the chosen place within their tribal territory. Their worship was to be in the context of their tribe-- or in our language, community.

There is something dangerous about our tendency to privatize or individualize everything. When worship becomes privatized it becomes vulnerable to error-- false worship, wrong thinking about God; moreover, it becomes anemic. Our worship must not only remind us that we belong to God, but that we are His people, we are part of His tribe. This is likely why Jesus' chosen word for the His new people was ekklesia, the gathering or assembly, a word that conjures images of a city gathering with purpose. Much can be said about our current trend toward meeting with a few friends just like us in a home and calling it "church", but that must be saved for another blog. For now, it will do to start us thinking in a more communal or corporate way about worship.

2. Honor Life, Don't Desecrate It
Moses continues by telling them that could eat meat so long as the blood was drained: "But you must not eat the blood. You must pour it on the ground like water" (vs. 16). From Leviticus 17, we know that "life of every creature is in the blood". Blood was for atoning for sins, not for eating or drinking. Wrapped in this strange command is an instruction about the sanctity of life.

By telling Israel not to eat the blood of an animal when they joyfully ate its meat as part of their worship celebration, God was teaching Israel not to let worship make them self-indulgent. It's as if He was saying, "Don't get so caught up in the joy of worshipping Me that you forget about others, that you think your life is more valuable than theirs." Later in Israel's history they would be rebuked for celebrating great sacred festivals and feasts at the expense of the poor and the needy (Amos 5). Our worship, while being communal, must not be insular. Life is precious: the Life that was given so that we might truly live, the lives that are suffering without that Life, and the lives that are trivialized and extinguished by genocide, abortion, abuse, and injustice all around the world. Worship must lead us to honor life and to protect it.

3. Involve Our Children, Don't Sacrifice Them
Toward the end of the chapter, Moses adds a very specific detail about how pagans worshipped their gods, one that Israel had to avoid:  “You must not worship the Lord your God the way the other nations worship their gods, for they perform for their gods every detestable act that the Lord hates. They even burn their sons and daughters as sacrifices to their gods” (vs. 31). When Moses talks about what Israel was to do with their children, the two ways come into sharp contrast: “You must celebrate there in the presence of the Lord your God with your sons and daughters and all your servants” (vs. 12a). In Yahweh worship, children are included in the celebration; in pagan worship, the children are sacrificed. 

How often do we aim to serve God, to worship Him, to bring Him honor, but do so at the expense of our children? Far too many servants of Yahweh—pastors, missionaries, marketplace ministers—are sacrificing their children to carry out their work for God. This is how our culture works for its gods of wealth and success. But our God does not want to be worshipped in that way. His way of being worshipped means that we bring our children into what we are doing for Him. We are to talk with them when we are “at home and when [we] are on the road, when [we] are going to bed and when [we] are getting up (Deut. 6:7).

It's good that we are learning to put away idols and idol worship. Now perhaps it's time we rethink the way we are attempting to worship God, so that we aren't doing it the way the ancient pagans did. The way we worship matters immensely to God.

Why Twitter Is Better Than Facebook

Turn on any news show-- even a sports news show-- and you'll hear fully-grown, well-groomed anchors talking awkwardly about "tweets". A little of a year ago, when I first started "tweeting", nobody-- including me-- really understood the point of telling everyone what you were doing at any given moment of the day. Now, all of a sudden, it's how freedom-loving Iranians are telling the world of their plight and how diva NFL receivers sound off about their contracts. Twitter is just mainstream enough that professional athletes are "tweeting" on the sidelines or during halftime; yet it's not mainstream enough for owners and coaches to really understand it-- hence the reason many teams have banned their players from "tweeting". 

I don't claim to be a Twitter expert or power-user. Neither am I ignorant about it's dangers to our already narcissistic culture. I am not sold out to this little tool. I know it's a fad and a year from now we might be atwitter with something else. Still, as I've considered how Twitter is different than Facebook, and the power hidden in this simple social media device, I thought I'd take a stab at the reasons I think Twitter is better than Facebook:

1. Twitter Is Concise
140 characters is all you get. So, an update is short. In fact, it's not really best for soul-baring, like the "OMG, I'm so depressed because my boyfriend just broke up with me" kind of nonsense you read in your Facebook newsfeeds. It's not even best for ranting about world issues or vague political jabs. Because of the character limit, Twitter ends up being very specific, particular information. Or links to it.

The character limit applies not just to updates but also to direct messages to another Twitter user. Imagine if Instant Messaging didn't require you to sit at your computer for 2 hours just to finish a conversation. Imagine if someone's message to you could only be a few sentences at the most....and that you could reply whenever you wanted...and that it would come to your phone like a text without you giving up your cell phone number. That's why Twitter direct messaging is better. 

2. Twitter Is More Private
Twitter doesn't care to know the school you went to, the networks you're part of, or even your marital status. I love that Facebook does all that, but I can see why some would prefer a more private way of connecting. It's this very reason that most athletes, musicians, actors, actresses, and a multitude of minor celebrities prefer not to have a Facebook, but will "tweet" every day. Terrell Owens and John Mayer are just a few examples.

This narrow field of personal information has also made Twitter the ideal social networking platform for many businesses in general, and news networks in particular. For example, I follow the Denver Broncos on Twitter. This means at different points during the day, my routines are pleasantly interrupted by updates on the latest from Bronco Training Camp. There are often pictures and links to blogs about how the new players are doing. CNN, ESPN, and other news outlets "tweet" breaking news...which on a slow news day includes word that Brett Favre is still retired, though he is working out. 

3. Twitter Is Targeted
Like Facebook status updates, your "tweets" only go to your friends. The difference is that while you may accept someone as a friend on Facebook who once dated a girl who used to go the high school that was your school's main rival six years after your graduated, you may not really care about what they ate for breakfast. Your followers on Twitter tend to be people that actually care what you have to say, especially on a particular topic. So worship leaders may follow Bob Kauflin, author of "Worship Matters" (@bkauflin) because they like hearing Bob's thoughts on worship ministry, or receiving links to resources Bob has found helpful, or even occasionally, learning what Bob ordered at Starbucks. The point is, when you send out a "tweet", it's going to people who care about what you have to say even if you've never met them, versus a status update that shows up in a the news feed of hundreds of loose acquaintances who don't have a clue what you do for a living.

4. Twitter is Relatively Instant
Thanks to the iphone, when it comes to Twitter, "there's an app for that." Of course, there's a Facebook app too, but for the rest of us who have non-smart phones (stupid phones?), Twitter lets you text in your "tweets". You can even receive "tweets" via text. (Standard text messaging rates apply.) So if your followers choose that option, you can communicate to a targeted group of people concisely and instantly.

This comes in handy for things like a worship leader telling the choir that practice is cancelled tonight, or an airline pointing people to their website for a limited hour of cheap tickets. Perhaps it will become the way churches do announcements so as to eliminate the commercial break announcement videos in the midst of worship.

5. Twitter is Search-Friendly
Unlike Facebook, Twitter lets you search to see what others are "tweeting" about a particular event or item or person. For example, if you're a young author or musician prone to insecurities, you can see what people are saying about your new book or CD-- hypothetically speaking.

To make the searching easier and more "intelligent", you can use the "#" sign to set apart an event or item. This makes it a hyperlink in your "tweet" so that people can easily click on it and see what everyone else has said about it. I was at a worship conference where they asked conferees to use "#nwlc09" in any "tweet" about the event so they could easily see what workshops people enjoyed and why, and what the buzz at lunch was about. It's realtime feedack.

It's also "everyman journalism" on steroids. For better or for worse, we no longer need to wait for an on-site anchor to tell us about the event; we can look at the "tweets" of the people. The perfect example of this, was, of course, Michael Jackson's funeral. "Twitpics" and "tweets" let the whole world know the real-time inside scoop on that tragic day.

6. Twitter is Helpful
Generally speaking, the best "tweets" are the ones that answer questions or point you to resources. So, don't just "tweet" about what you had for lunch; tell us where to find the best coffee in town, or which free wi-fi spots are your favorite. Tell me a Bible verse that inspired you. Share a quote from a book you're reading. Send a link to a great blog (Ahem). Recommend a new CD. Don't make it diary drivel; make it maven-speak. Let us in our your personal expertise.

There you have it. Now, for the record, I love Facebook and will continue to use it. Facebook is like the town square: it's where we go to catch up with old friends and look at their family pictures or watch their vacation videos; it's where we network and do business and fall in love. Twitter is a like a telegram...on a steady diet of Performance Enhancing Drugs! So, in a sense, it isn't that Twitter is better than Facebook; it's that they're completely different beasts.

Oh, and you can follow me on Twitter @gpackiam! :)

What Creative People Never Tell You About Creativity

There is a myth about creativity that will surface in almost every conversation about the subject. It may not be expressed in quite the same way; it isn't even always said. But at the bottom of almost every discussion on creativity is the belief that creativity is about authenticity, it is about being unique, being different, being an individual. When a person does "what no one has ever done before", she is being creative. When a person copies or incorporates ideas or methods that have been used before, he is being dull and uncreative. 

But here are three things that every artist knows but is reluctant to admit...three reasons why the confusion of creativity with authenticity is misleading:

1. Only God Creates Out Of Nothing

Ex nihilo is the Latin phrase the Church used to explain that when God made the world, He didn't have any starting materials. He made it all from scratch. Out of nothing.

Every creative person thereafter has been building with His lumber. We are, as it were, painting with a fixed palette. All our so-called inventors are not making new things; they are taking existing things and combining them in such a way as to bring new possibilities to our world. A musician is working with a finite amount of notes. In Western composition, 12 to be exact. In Eastern melodies, intervals "within the cracks of the piano keys" are acceptable, but even then, the possibilities run out. Every dye ever made reflects a color God first sprayed in our universe. Even in our most creative work, when we join with God to co-create life, we are not creating something out of nothing. The building blocks of art are ancient.

2. Imitation is an important part of creativity.

OK, so not much room for disagreement on the first point. But here's is where things get a little dicey. No one who truly aspires to be creative cares to admit the amount of imitation they've engaged in. I recently went with my wife and Rob and Sarah Stennett to hear the award-winning short story writer Tobias Wolff do some readings at Colorado College. He talked about how in virtually every field of art imitation was an acceptable form of learning. Painters might begin by sitting in front of a Monet and trying to recreate it. Musicians will mimic riffs from Hendrix or Armstrong or Coltrain. But writers are somehow disdained for writing stories that imitate Hemingway or Fitzgerald. 

Why the double standard? Why not come out and admit that imitation is how we learn to create, in all fields? Imitation places us inside the head of an artist, making us see the notes they chose and the ones they ignored, the colors they blended and the combinations they used. It lets us peer at the world through their eyes as we try to re-create their "creation". Since none of us are making new "materials", we can learn about how to rightly combine these materials from the works of others. We learn to talk, to put words together, by being spoken to; we learn to pray by praying the prayers of Scripture; and we learn to create by re-creating the works of others.

3. Creativity is a combination of "theme" and "variation".

OK, so if we're not creating ex nihilo, and if imitation is part of the creative process, then where is the individuality, the uniqueness? It is in the way we reference the "theme" and the way we vary from it. What this means, then, is that the unwillingness to include any part of "theme" or a norm in our work means that we've lost any point of reference for others. It may be "creative", but it is isolated and esoteric. Let's think of it this way: a language that is truly unique is also utterly useless; it is a language known and understood only by you. It is gibberish. So, any art that refuses the inclusion of "theme" or even fragments of a template is an art that is individualized to the extreme. No one else can participate in it or benefit from it or be inspired by it. But if what we create is to have some sort of "public service" to it (the word "liturgy" comes from a Greek word that means a civic or public service)-- and not all art has to-- it must be willing to submit to "theme and variation."

If you think about it, human beings are unique not in an absolute sense, but we are unique in the way themes and variations of those themes combine in us. We all have themes of God's image in us; we are sullied by the familiar stains of sin. Yet there are infinite (?) variations of God's nature and sin's defacement in each of us. And it is those combinations that make us unique. This may be disappointing to have to admit that we are more like each other than we had supposed, that no one is truly all that different. Even more deflating is the realization that if we all sought to be "extraordinary", no one would be extraordinary since extraordinary would then be the new "ordinary." We find ourselves, then, pursuing creativity like a teenager wanting to be different: we want to be different, just like everyone else. And so we are forced finally to admit that we are all more similar than different. We are living displays of theme and variation. And so is everything we make.

Two Sides of the Same Coin: Why I Recorded a Solo Album

I have always felt that at my core I am a teacher. It shows up in everything I try to do. This has often come with some unwelcome baggage. I find myself turning simple conversations into a soapbox pontifications; friends who simply want to vent are forced to endure my "teaching moments". Music for me has always been a tool to teach-- a lovely, moving, beautiful tool, but still, a tool. I have never considered myself a "true musician", one who loves the art for the art itself. I have been a worship leader because I love calling people's attention to God. And music is an elegant and potent way to communicate that call. In some ways, I stumbled into being a worship leader vocationally, always knowing that some day that would pass. So, when I stepped out of the Desperation Band last summer, it was not to "go solo". I had no intentions then, nor do I now, of being a "solo artist". I left so I could make room in my life for more speaking and writing. When I made the decision in April (it didn't become official until the summer), I hadn't signed a contract with David C. Cook, though conversations were in process. Still, I had no idea how things would play out.

After spending the summer writing Secondhand Jesus and much of the Fall re-writing sections, a friend who used to work for Integrity Music and is now a free-lance producer called. He asked if I would be interested in making a studio solo record. He would recruit the musicians and fund the project, and if we sold it to a label, he would reap the full benefit of his investment. 

Faced with that unexpected opportunity, I realized something: I'm not done with music yet. It is still a huge part of my life. I had written some new songs that I believed in and had used at theMILL (New Life's college ministry where I led every week). The thought of being able to record them and to also give new artistic life into a handful of previously recorded songs was exciting to me. I had to make my peace with the fact that, for now, speaking and worship leading, writing and songwriting, are two sides of the same coin: they are part of who I am and how I teach. 

So I spent a week in Mobile with a bunch of incredible musicians making the album. As it took shape, I couldn't believe how good it sounded-- and it had nothing to do with me! Then Integrity Music said they were interested in picking it up. I made it clear that I would never be a career artist or spend my life on the road. They said there were many ways of making a deal work. And this is why I'm so thankful for them, this is what makes them true ministry partners and not simply a record label: they got it; they understood me and how the Lord is at work. We found a quick, low-pressure way of making this album theirs.

In the process of choosing songs for the project, I realized that in many ways this would be a sort of companion piece to Secondhand Jesus. The book and the CD are twin expressions of the same journey. They have been a kind of soundtrack for my walk. In fact, many of the songs unintentionally correspond with the themes of certain chapters. It makes sense; after all, both were written in the same time in my life. For example:

Track 7 "Without You" works well with the themes of Chapters 3 and 4; 

Track 1 "This Is Our God" seems to correspond with Chapters 5 and 6; 

and Track 4 "For Love I Sing" captures the heart of Chapters 7 and 8. 

Maybe the most obvious correlation is Track 3 "Burning in Me" with Chapters 9 and 10 because of the pre-chorus: 

"I have only heard the whispers of Your majesty,

All I've known were only rumors, 

Now my eyes have seen Your glory, God." 

Anyway, I hope that helps explain what's going on in my life. I can't see what's around the bend all that clearly. But for now, music and writing are two sides of the same coin. They are faithful vehicles for me to express what God is doing in my life, and I hope both can be of some usefulness to you. 

"Rumors and Revelations" releases June 23. To hear tracks and to get chord charts, visit the brand new www.glennpackiam.com.