Rockin' Worship, Part II

So it's official: Eucatastrophe is #1!

That's right! The youth praise band of Bakerstown UMC took first prize in the first Battle of the Bands here in the North Hills! Over 200 youth gathered at Hampton Presbyterian Church to hear some great youth praise bands and to support the North Hills Youth Ministry Counseling Center!

I was so proud of my band members and the other youth of Bakerstown UMC... they displayed their passion, they got everyone excited, they were respectful of all the participants, and Christ was glorified in their behavior and their worship. What's more, some of my youth invited their unchurched friends, and they all wanted to hang out with us after the evening was over. I get the distinct impression that I'll see those teens again, and that our group will be able to continue to witness to them what life with Christ is all about.

It was such an incredible evening! Kudos to Brian Wallace, youth pastor at Hampton Pres., for organizing the event, and to the other bands that participated.

I agree with the comments of my brother in Christ, Jesse Siefert, who was at the event and who is the youth pastor at Whitehall Presbyterian Church. He said that God is definitely doing a work in this new generation of young people, and he believes that God is going to use them to make a difference here in Pittsburgh!

I heard that other United Methodist Church youth had a great weekend at Blaze in Downtown Pittsbrugh with 400 youth in attendance....even more evidence that Jesse's vision seems to be true.

Will you join me in praying for the young people in this area, that God's Spirit will move in their hearts and will challenge them to do great things in the name of Jesus Christ? Let that be our prayer and our passion!

"Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith, and in purity." - I Timothy 4:12

Rockin' Worship!

Okay, folks...prayer request for all of you:

This Sunday at 5:00 p.m., our youth praise band Eucatastrophe will be taking part in a "Battle of the Praise Bands" at Hampton Presbyterian Church in Gibsonia. Several youth praise bands in the area will be coming together for some friendly competition, in order to raise money for the North Hills Youth Ministry Counseling Center (http://www.nhymcc.org/). We will be playing some great praise songs like Let it Rise, David Crowder's No One Like You, and Fernando Ortega's Our Great God, as well as contemporary favorites like Relient K's Who I Am Hates Who I've Been and Hoobastank's The Reason (with a distinctively Christian slant on that last one).

I am so grateful for this opportunity. It will give these guys with whom I've worked so hard a chance to be seen and heard by people other than this congregation, to be a witness for Christ through their music, and to help a worthy Christian cause in this community. What more could I ask for?

I don't want you folks to pray that we win the competition (well, if you insist)...

Rather, please pray that God will reveal Himself through us, that we will worship well, and that we will be good representatives of Christ and of Bakerstown United Methodist. If you'd like to pray for specific band members, they are:

Nate Bodnar - Drums
Trevor Ditmore - Vocals
Zack Meuschke (grandson of Revs. Paul Meuschke and Ken McGowan) - Guitar
Derek Platt - Vocals
Alex Shipley (grandson of the late Rev. Ralph Shipley) - Bass Guitar
Eric Zarenko - Guitar
Jeff Kahl - Keyboard

Thanks for your prayers! I pray that all of you experience the same passion in your worship of Jesus Christ!

P.S. - If you would like to know what our band's name (Eucatastrophe) means, there's a post somewhere on my blog that describes it! Look under the heading "Inklings."

How Great Thou ART

Jeff Vanderhoff's remarks in my last post (see below, "No Country for Jeff") have led me to reflect on movies as an art form. As is typical with nerds like me, I ended up pondering an even more philosophical question: What is art? And what is its purpose in our lives?

As Vanderhoff commented in my last post, he would much rather watch a good comedy that gives him a little escape from life, rather than a heavy movie like No Country for Old Men which seems to confuse and frustrate more than clarify and edify.

So what is the purpose of art? Why should we watch movies, listen to music, read books, attend plays? Is it to be entertained? To be instructed? Or to just escape from the "real world" for a while?

In general, I believe there are three views of the purpose of the arts in human existence. I know that we all can come up with many specific reasons for liking specific pieces of art, but what I'm listing are just broad categories about the arts in general.

First, there's the view that art is essentially a "handmaid of religion" - that the purpose of art is almost exclusively for religious expression, worship, and for giving glory and honor to God. In other words, art is justified by its faithfulness in representing religious truth. Simple totem poles, ceremonial dances, and mythical stories in the pre-Christian religions. Gothic cathedrals, passion plays and Gregorian chants of the Middle Ages. Even much of the contemporary Christian music business today. All of those would be examples of this first philosophy of art.

Secondly, there's the view that, fundamentally, the purpose of art is to entertain...that art exists for the sake of the audience. The justification of art is, therefore, its ability to reach people subjectively. In this view, what is being said/portrayed is much less important than how it is being said/portrayed. Most of popular music/literature/art falls into this category, although there are excellent exceptions (U2, The Beatles, etc...). Take pop music for example: most of what is actually communicated is trivial, pedantic, and vulgar, yet it is presented with such fanfare and sensationalism that the audience is simply taken up in the experience of the "show."

Finally, there is the philosophy that art is the concretization of the artist's fundamental views of life: that in the specific media of music, painting, literature, etc..., the artist is communicating a basic understanding of human existence, inviting the audience to enter into that understanding, perceive, and enjoy. In this view, the audience can not sit passively and expect pure entertainment. They must engage the work of art with their mind and heart and, in doing so, attempt to discover the major themes that are actually being communicated.

Take two of my favorite films: Hugh Hudson's Chariots of Fire and David Fincher's Seven. In my opinion, each film presents a certain view about the nature of humanity. Chariots of Fire presents humans as having all the potential to be heroic, to live with integrity, to maintain their core beliefs even in the face of opposition, and ultimately to achieve great success. Seven, on the other hand, presents human life as being hopelessly depraved, in which even those with the best intentions are doomed to either failure, cynicism, or despair. Both films use their stories, characterizations, and cinematography flawlessly to present these views. Neither film is "entertainment for its own sake;" but each, in my opinion, is brilliant in what it seeks to achieve.

In Genesis we are told that God is a Creator, and that humans are made in His image. Therefore, I believe that it is in the nature of human life to want to create, to express our deepest longings and beliefs, and to share those with others. I thank God for the brilliant artists, past and present, who have added much to my mind, heart, and life.

No Country for Jeff

So two events happened in the past two weeks that prompted these reflections:

1). On March 2, I turned 35 years old, the age which many people associate with the beginning of the male mid-life crisis.

2). This past weekend, I splurged with some of my birthday money and went to see the movie No Country for Old Men, which recently took top honors at the Academy Awards and which features riveting performances from Josh Brolin, Javier Bardem, Tommy Lee Jones, and Kelly MacDonald.

If you want to read a first-rate review of this film, go to Eric Park's website and check it out. I won't even attempt to equal his analysis of this incredible flick, but I do wish to comment on the three major characters.

1 - First there's Llewellyn Moss, a young man who unexpectedly happened upon a suitcase filled with money at the scene of a botched drug deal. With no moral framework that would help him to do the right thing (turn the money in to the police), impulsively he decided to keep the money for himself. Throughout the course of the film he reveals his propensity for making stupid, spur-of-the-moment decisions that end up doing more harm than good. He even puts his relationship with his wife second to doing what is necessary to keep the money. Llewellyn represents opportunism at its worst.

2 - Then there's Ed Tom Bell, the old sheriff who represents not only law and order but also a sense of decency and morality that was typical of an older America but seems to be fading. Ed Tom even hints that he once had a high hope in God. And yet that hope has long since disappeared for Ed Tom, who observes a culture around him that has no more use for his moral and ethical ideals. Rather than resisting the trend towards moral decay, I sense that Ed Tom chooses instead to wallow in cynicism and merely wait for retirement and death.

3 - Finally, there's the serial killer Anton Chigurh, who I think will go down in history with Hannibal Lecter and Norman Bates as one of the finest villains ever portrayed on film. For Anton, life is senseless and arbitrary, almost a game of chance, and human beings are indistinguishable from cattle if they deter him from his goals. He values nothing beyond his own survival. I'd characterize him by his nihilism. Is he crazy? Evil? Or is he the only person who knows what it takes to survive in a world where there is no objective standard of truth and goodness?

So here I am, 35 years old, looking out at the current culture in which I find myself, and in many respects, these three characters represent the only three options that a secular agenda could offer us. Opportunism, cynicism, and nihilism -- what else is there in a life where God is seen as irrelevant, where truth is reduced to opinion, and where morality is relative?

None of these three options is appealing to me. I pray to God that the moral universe implicit in No Country For Old Men is not the moral universe to which we are headed. There are many signs that it's happening. But there is hope.

Just like there was hope in the movie, embodied in the character of Llewellyn's wife, Carla Jean, beautifully portrayed by Scottish actress Kelly MacDonald (who, in my opinion, should have been nominated for an Oscar). In spite of her husband's opportunism, she shows unconditional love and faithfulness to him. In spite of Sheriff Ed Tom's cynicism, she puts her quiet confidence in his ability to uphold law and order. And when she is face to face with the serial killer Anton's nihilism, she poignantly pleads with him to realize that he is capable of making a better choice.

I pray that in this country of ours, all Christians can have the character and faithfulness of Carla Jean. For those may be the best things we have to offer.