What am I doing to celebrate Australia Day in Nashville, TN, USA?

What am I doing to celebrate Australia Day in Nashville, TN, USA?

1) Seeing "Australia Day" on my calendar,

2) Bouncing some Australia Day themed discussion with Facebook friends,

3) Missing Aussie family, friends, warmth, air and oceans,

4) Noticing that we're running low on Vegemite,

5) Working on a very Aussie-sounding, gritty pop/rock pc3 song, and

(dah-dadadah-da-da-da-dah!)

6) Asking wife Brooke to please cook that leg of lamb (that's in the freezer being saved for a 'special occasion') for dinner tonight! She said she would! (Good lamb is hard to find and very expensive in the USA).

7) Posting this Facebook Note as a blog

"Catalyst Conversations"

Grant is interviewed by Brad Lomenick from Catalyst (2009).
www.catalystspace.com/content/conversations

“Awesome” and Other Vanishing Words

Imagine a classroom. I am an English teacher and the students are in their seats, waiting for the lesson to begin. Today I intend to teach the meaning of the word awesome. I begin the lesson with some casual banter.

“It’s awesome you’re all here.” Gesturing to the striking footwear of one of the students, I exclaim, “Awesome boots you’re wearing!”

Then, getting more serious I continue. “Today I want to teach you the real meaning of the word awesome and it’s going to be awesome! Awesome is a word we use to describe something that fills us with a sense of awe. When something overwhelms us with feelings of wonder, reverence, respect and a touch of fear, it is awesome. Got it? Awesome. Have an awesome lunch break!”

This is a very BAD example of teaching. It’s terrible, in fact!

I firmly believe we "worship leaders" and musicians are doing the same terrible teaching with the way we misuse the word worship: worship service, worship song, worship leader, worship center, worship band, worship experience, worship pastor, worship… musician.

The original meaning of the word awesome is all-but lost because of overuse and misuse in recent years. In the same way, the intended original and powerful meaning of worship may be nearly lost to us too, but with immeasurably more dire consequences. And we are the ones creating much of the confusion. In fact, we just might be the main reason why the church is so confused about what it means to worship in Spirit and in truth!

“True worship is to be so personally and hopelessly in love with God, that the idea of a transfer of affection never even remotely exists.” A.W. Tozer

Just a few hundred years ago, the word worship actually was stated as worth-ship. It means to ascribe worth to something or someone. True worth-ship of God is shown as I surrender my life: my pride, my selfishness, my willfulness, my rights to lead my own existence. Surely our highest hope as we teach and lead as worshiping musicians is to direct people to the true and original meaning of worship: The worship that is my life surrendered to ascribe worth to Jesus the Christ.

“Therefore, bothers and sisters, in view of God’s great mercy, offer yourself as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, and let that be your spiritual act of worship.” (Romans 12:1)

Nowhere in scripture is the word worship used as an adjective - a describing word - as we most often use it. Neither can I find in the Bible where the word worship is used to define the act of passionately singing songs to God or a meeting of believers. Yet, in the vast majority of occurrences, that is how we use the word: incorrectly educating those who hear us, and ourselves, with a misunderstanding of worship.

“No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible.” Voltaire

You might be saying to yourself right now, “Oh, that’s just semantics. The word worship can be used in a variety contexts. It’s not a big deal.” Really? I believe we must acknowledge that the way we speak is of utmost importance.

Whether we recognize it or not, our words change the way we think. And the way we think changes the way we live. We would do well to remember that, like the small rudder that steers a large ship, my tongue steers me! (James 3:4-5) “The mouth speaks what the heart is full of” (Matthew 12:34). And …

“If anyone would consider himself a worshiper, yet does not keep a tight reign on his tongue, he deceives himself and his worship is worthless.” (James 1:26)

We must measure our words more carefully. Let’s start with WORSHIP!

After all of our "worship leadership", it is clear, by the way most Christians speak, that we wrongly believe that worship is when I sing songs to God, or perhaps it is what happens when I meet with other Christians - usually on a Sunday morning in a "worship service". Many of us are unintentionally educating a future generation to believe that worship is when there’s a band on a stage and words about God on a screen.

More devoted believers might go so far as to recognize that their private times of singing, praying, fasting, Bible study or perhaps even when they do something kind for someone in need, also qualify as worship. I am sure these are valid expressions of worship, but isn’t worship even more than that? Our lips show we have little idea of completely surrendering our lives - being “living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God…” letting that be our “…spiritual act of worship.” (Romans 12:1)

“A time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on the mountaintop nor in the Temple. … Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.” (John 4:21 & 23)

As Jesus’ words reveal, we are now in the time when worship is not and must not be restricted to our times in a church building nor contained within our mountaintop experiences. Are we not teaching in opposition to these sacred words when we hang a sign above the door saying “Worship Center” or have letters on our street sign that say “Worship Service at 9am and 11am”? If I step up to a microphone, guitar slung around my neck, strum a chord and instruct the people by saying, “Let’s begin to worship!,” whether I realize it or not, I must concede that I have taught, “You were not worshiping before now and you will stop when I finish.” We have inadvertently taught that worship does not happen at other times and in other places.

Yes! Let’s keep singing songs of praise and adoration to God. Yes! Let’s gather together as a community of believers. Let’s do it more often, for longer and more passionately! But let this be the worship we lead, teach and demonstrate: worship that doesn’t switch on and off but that is constant, ongoing and all pervading. Let’s lead and teach Romans 12:1 “living sacrifice” worship that is 24/7/365, and 366 on a leap year! This will not be possible, however, as long as we misuse the word "worship" to describe our on-off-on-off music and meetings.

(This article was originally published in "Worship Musician Magazine" in August of 2010 - an excellent magazine that I think should be named "The Worshiping Musician". See www.christianmusician.com for details.)

"The Boy The Bed and the Bass" July/August 2010 Christian Musician Magazine

"Show Us Your Groove"‏

Rick Cua’s column by Grant Norsworthy

The Boy, The Bed & The Bass

Groove is about what you choose to play. NOT what you can play. Groove is about creating parts of a coherent picture that, when combined with the other instruments’ parts, creates a complete picture that moves and engages people. Whether I am playing bass, acoustic guitar, singing or leading the band, the picture I think about is my three-year-old boy Max jumping up and down on mummy and daddy’s bed. If the song is uptempo, the picture or ‘movie’ is in real time. If it’s a slower, more emotive song, it’s slo-mo. It really helps!

Max - my bounding, joyful little man - is the melody and the lyric; he must be the main focus of the arrangement. The audience or congregation recognizes, connects and sings along to the lyric and the melody. (This is especially important in the context of congregational singing). The mattress is the bass and drums; just like my mattress has a mummy’s side and a daddy’s side, so the bass and drums are really two halves to one whole. And just as the mattress is the foundation that springs Max into the air, the bass/drum unit is what provides the foundational groove of the song and makes the listener feel and move to the music. After that the guitars, keys, and anything else are just blankets, sheets, and pillows that add color and shade and make a more enjoyable over-all experience (and for the record, guitarists and keys players, no one can enjoy a bed without a pillow).

The Mattress

The most essential component of any song's groove is that the bass and drums work tightly together to create a solid foundation for the melody. Just as a mattress malfunction would sideline Max's trampoline time, a sloppy bass/drum combo quickly drains the feel and movement of a song. Bassists! We need to be in good, communicating relationship with the drummer. Musically, the drums and the bass should think and play as one.

The first step for bassists is to begin to view the kick drum as essential emphasis to your bass rhythm. Hitting your note at exactly the same time that the drummer hits the kick gives your playing punch and creates a tight sound that the audience can feel. That will not be possible while bass and kick are playing sloppy notes in random rhythmic disorder. It's good to play particular, agreed kick/bass patterns and to communicate ahead of time with the drummer about where and how patterns might change.

Having the notes from kick and bass together is an imperative starting point, but we don’t have to play the same rhythms all the time. But if your bass rhythm is going to be different than the kick, it should be intentional and purposeful in that it achieves some effect that supports the melody and builds groove. Communicate with the drummer and come up with parts and repeated patterns and rhythms. Without this type of liaison it's hard to create a connection with the other musicians and with the listeners, the groove dies tragically, and the melody is left with no mattress to bounce on.

The Essential Arsenal

A lot of times bassists seem too distracted with licks and runs, high notes and fancy stuff and neglect their role in the groove of the music; they're too preoccupied with trying to be a pillow or a blanket and forget that they need to be half the mattress that supports the whole song. A song is often best served by the bassist playing just the bass note of the chord played as whole notes, half notes, quarter notes or eighth notes. Although runs and more complex rhythms might tickle your ear, many songs sound better if the bassist uses solid evenly spaced, evenly weighted notes.

This means that before you do anything else on bass – walking, flurries, taking a jaunt up the neck, anything – you should work with a metronome or drum machine to get solid eighth notes into your repertoire. However simple eighth notes might seem to you, they are often the right choice for a really good, deep groove. Much can be accomplished in the emotion of a song by changing how the bass is subdividing the rhythm. For example, switching from whole to eighth notes to elevate a chorus shifts gears in the intensity of a song in a very significant way that the rest of the band and the listeners will feel.

The Musician's Goal

In the end the bassist needs to be a servant to the song as a whole, which in turn fulfills the goals of best serving the band, the people we play for and our Creator. Focus on getting a solid relationship with the kick drum and practicing effective quarter and eight notes first. Once the two halves of the mattress are working together, the rest of the song can get moving and grooving.

From Rick Cua's "Show Us Your Groove" column in Christian Musician Magazine

Singing of God’s Love or Being God’s Love

Matthew 22:35-40

One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question:
"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

One of the most popular songs in recent years for corporate worship is "I Could Sing of Your Love Forever". Congregations all around the world sing it. On a recent trip to Asia, I heard it sung in Thai. I would be surprised to find a church music team that has never played it. It's pretty likely that you, the reader, know the song and have probably sung it time and time again.

I am personally thankful to Martin Smith and Delirious? for first writing and recording this wonderful song. It's incredibly effective and powerful. In SONICFLOOd we play it almost every time we perform. I love playing it and singing it. While singing that song, I have often felt a wonderful closeness with God and a very real sense of His love for me. It usually leads to a great 'moment' where we in the band stop playing and the congregation takes over - singing passionate praises to God.

But very recently I realized something that, to me, was quite shocking. During those times that I was singing of His love, I was doing something that Jesus never asked me to do! In all the recorded words of Jesus in the Gospels, He never once asks us to sing of His love, or has anything to say about singing songs at all. One of the most practiced things that followers of Jesus love to do, He never asked us to do!

While never teaching us to sing about His love, Jesus very clearly, in many different ways and over and over again instructs us to be His love in the world. He tells us to love one another (John 13:34-35), to love our neighbor (Matt 22:39), even to love our enemies (Matt 5:43) and to show love to "the least of these" (Matt 25:40).

Jesus teaches that, after loving God, loving the people around us is the most important thing. And that everything about honoring God –"all the law and the prophets" – stem from our love for God and others. (Matt 22:40) He also shows us that our love should be unconditional and self-sacrificial. (Matt 15:12-14) All this while saying nothing about singing of God's love.

It is good to sing songs of praise and to worship God through music - I do it and encourage others to do it as my vocation! And there are many places in the Scriptures that give examples and show the value of singing and playing our worship. And I can imagine the saints truly will sing of God's love forever in heaven.

But we must be careful. It is much easier to sing about God's love than to truly be God's love. It is far too easy to let singing be the most obvious outward expression of our love for God when it is our lavish, selfless and outrageous love for people – even the unlovable – that should define us. It may even be possible that singing about God's love could be an idol that distracts us from how to actually be God's love.

Let us check ourselves. Better than that, let's invite the Holy Spirit to check us. Yes! Let's sing of God's love, but let's allow God's healing Spirit to flow through the act to draw us to full obedience to be God's love.


Closing Prayer: "Dear God, Thank you for the gift of music and for allowing me to sing of your love. But please forgive me for being less than completely loving towards You and the people around me. I ask you to show me clearly where I have gone wrong – whom I have offended, what apologies I need to make, whose forgiveness I should seek. Please transform me into a true worshiper, shown not by what I sing, but by how I love. Thank you. Amen"

Things Rwandans carry on their heads:

While in Rwanda recently, we were amazed by many things ...  including how far people would walk every day and the sorts of things they could balance on their heads (without help from their hands!) while on the journey. Here are the top 10 things we saw:

10. A sack of sweet potatoes

9. An upright milk bottle

8. A long plank of wood

7. Pile of folded bed sheets

6. A banana tree trunk ... which is pretty huge

5. A wheeled suitcase

4. An open and full water tub... no spills!

3. A wooden door

2. A garden hoe.... the center of gravity a long way down the pole

1. Backpack - with shoulder straps hanging beside their ears making the carrier look a bit like an elephant

New intro/promo video for "word and song".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWsZJfyf7SI

Breaking Our Box of ‘Worship’

On the topic of music in the church, I’d like to think I have a background that gives me a voice worth consideration. With over 10 years as a professional 'Christian musician' – as bassist for the Paul Colman Trio (pc3), 'worship rockers' Sonicflood and many others – I now find myself not only singing, but also speaking to crowds about worship – what it is and what it isn't. With music the thing that has earned me the platform to speak, it might seem strange to many that I now, metaphorically at least, am taking the axe to the notion of music in the church being 'worship'.

Firstly, and sincerely, I want to apologize. I think it's people like me, musicians within the church, who have helped to create a great deal of confusion not only about the word 'worship' - but also about what it actually means to be a worshiper. This apology comes from a very real and personal conviction, yet, at the same time, I am trying to make a point for all of us with this apology.

In the past I (and other musicians like me) have misused the word 'worship' as a synonym for music, in particular music intended for congregational singing by Christians - the songs we sing to and about God. More often than not we've used 'worship' as an adjective: 'worship song', 'worship band', 'worship service', 'worship leader', 'worship pastor', 'worship experience', 'worship CD', 'worship centre', 'worship iPod playlist', and so on.

But the word 'worship' is never used in the Bible as an adjective – to describe, define, categorize or reduce something else. Nor is it used to mean exclusively music or the singing of songs. To use the word 'worship' as an adjective is to atrociously reduce and change its meaning. I believe that the word 'worship' is most powerful and potent when it is treated as a verb – a doing word. It's something I must do. Worship requires action, involvement, movement, engagement. It's a process to be undertaken.

'But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship Him.'
John 4:23

'Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of God's great mercy, offer yourselves as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, and let that be your spiritual act of worship.'
Romans 12:1

I’m sure that many readers of this blog may be familiar with verses from scripture like John 4:23 and Romans 12:1. As we read these words, few of us would believe that the word 'worship' is used here to mean singing songs or a meeting of Christians – what happens between 10 and 12 on Sunday mornings. The tug of truth assures us that our Lord Jesus and the Apostle Paul are referring to something much larger, more mysterious, more wonderful, and all pervading. Furthermore, I'm quite sure that most churchgoers, upon deeper reflection, would know that true worship is more than singing songs about God.

Yet we continue to misuse and overuse the word. We might say 'I didn't like worship this morning' when we really mean, 'The guitar was too loud' or, 'I didn't like the song choice'. We hear, 'I got to church late and I missed worship' or, 'I'm going to find a different church where I like the worship more'. All of these statements mis-educate both speaker and hearer, as they suggest that worship is the experience of singing or playing church music, an idea that leads us away from grasping what worship truly is.

'I could sing of your love forever!'
Martin Smith of Delirious?,
pc3,
Sonicflood,
And almost every church band and congregation everywhere.

Nowhere in the recorded words of Jesus is there a command to sing songs about His love; instead, over and over again, He asks us to be His love. Worship is not singing songs about God's love. To worship is to live selflessly, laying down my life - my worldly desires – and to love others the way Jesus does: demonstrated in His dying on the cross. More than a 'life-style', true worship is a living death–style.

'If anyone would call themselves my disciple [or a worshiper] he must turn away from his selfishness, pick up a cross and follow.'
Matthew 16:24

'Pure and perfect worship in the sight of God is to care for orphans and widows and to remain uncorrupted by the world.'
James 1:27

Please don't misunderstand me. I am not against music in the church. I think we should sing and play songs that express to God our praise, love, hopes, hurts, faith, gratitude, and everything that's in us. There are many places in scripture that convince me that this is an important and wonderful thing to do. As a musician, I am extremely grateful for that. Through personal experience I am convinced of the wonderful and mysterious power of music to melt my heart and direct my thoughts and praises to God – to somehow open a portal through which God chooses to move and touch me in ways that I cannot fully explain. Let's keep singing! Absolutely! Let's sing more often, for longer, more passionately than ever before! But let's do so understanding that our church music, in and of itself, is not worship.

Words are powerful. Words – the way we use them – change the way we think. The way we think changes the way we live. The word 'worship', in particular, is precious and sacred in its original, Biblical meaning - meaning that is fundamental to faith in Jesus the Christ.

'If anyone would consider himself a worshiper, and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his worship is worthless.'
James 1:26

By our constant, and (in many cases) knowing misuse, we are allowing the word 'worship' to change in meaning entirely. This is not an issue of semantics; it is an indicator of a far greater crisis in our faith. When we no longer have in our vocabulary a word that carries the true meaning of worship, we will not be able to talk about worship, we will not be able to think about worship, and we will not be able to lay down our lives in worship.

As wonderful as music is – a potentially powerful means to express worship – my life surrendered in worship is what is required. God doesn't want my songs of praise, my musical expressions of worship, unless He also has me, surrendered as a living sacrifice to be His love to my friends, my neighbors, my enemies and, especially, the 'least of these' to the ends of the earth.

[Although originally from Australia, Grant Norsworthy lives with his wife, Brooke, and son, Max, in Nashville, TN, USA, and works as a musician, leader of congregational singing for church groups, and public speaker. His speaking engagements include seminars and workshops for church musicians. His work takes him all over the USA, as well as to Canada, New Zealand and Australia.]

For more information, go to www.grantnorsworthy.com