It is so on the stage, as you know well enough, that someone sits and prompts by whispers; [he is hidden;] he is the inconspicuous one; he is and wishes to be overlooked. But then there is another, he strides out prominently, he draws every eye to himself. For that reason he has been given his name, that is: actor. He impersonates a distinct individual. In the skillful sense of this illusory art, each word becomes true when embodied in him, true through him—and yet he is told what he shall say by the hidden one that sits and whispers. No one is so foolish as to regard the prompter as more important than the actor.

Now forget this light talk of arts. Alas, in regard to things spiritual, the foolishness of many is this, that they in the secular sense look upon the speaker as an actor, and the listeners as theatergoers who are to pass judgment on the artist. But the speaker is not the actor—not in the remotest sense. No, the speaker is the prompter. There are no mere theatergoers present, for each listener will be looking into his own heart. The stage is eternity, and the listener, if he is the true listener (and if he is not, he is at fault) stands before God during the talk. The prompter whispers to the actor what he is to say, but the actor’s repetition of it is the main concern—is the solemn charm of the art. The speaker whispers the word to the listeners. But the main concern is earnestness: that the listeners by themselves, with themselves, and to themselves, in the silence before God, may speak with the help of this address.

The address is not given for the speaker’s sake, in order that men may praise or blame him. The listener’s repetition of it is what is aimed at. If the speaker has the responsibility for what he whispers, then the listener has an equally great responsibility not to fall short in his task. In the theater, the play is staged before an audience who are called theatergoers; but at the devotional address, God himself is present. In the most earnest sense, God is the critical theatergoer, who looks on to see how the lines are spoken and how they are listened to; hence here the customary audience is wanting. The speaker is then the prompter, and the listener stands openly before God. The listener, if I may say so, is the actor, who in all truth acts before God.

- Soren Kierkegaard, Purity of Heart

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If you go to Church of the Resurrection right now for a worship service and pick up a bulletin, you’ll see my foray into modeling. It’s a promo piece for our next sermon series. Try not to be too jealous. Janelle will be in next week’s, I believe.

Afraid your friends won’t believe you know a real, live Methodist model? Show them this.

First, a few words from my personal hero, Soren Kierkegaard; then, some thoughts on worship leadership.

When a man turns his back upon someone and walks away, it is so easy to see that he walks away, but when a man hits upon a method of turning his face towards the one he is walking away from, hits upon a method of walking backwards while with appearance and glance and salutations he greets the person, giving assurances again and again that he is coming immediately, or incessantly saying, “Here I am”—although he gets farther and farther away by walking backwards—then it is not so easy to become aware. And so it is with the one who, rich in good intentions and quick to promise, retreats backwards farther and farther from the good. With the help of intentions and promises he maintains an orientation towards the good, he is turned towards the good, and with this orientation towards the good he moves backwards farther and farther away from it. With ever renewed intention and promise it seems as if he takes a step forward, and yet he not only remains standing still but really takes a step backward. The intention taken in vain, the unfulfilled promise leaves a residue of despondency, dejection, which perhaps soon again leave behind only greater languor. As a drunkard constantly requires stronger and stronger stimulation—in order to become intoxicated, likewise the one who has fallen into intentions and promises constantly requires more and more stimulation—in order to walk backward.

- Soren Kierkegaard, Works of Love

So what does this have to do with worship leadership? Let’s take a look back at an unorthodox, although very Biblical, definition of worship.

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My very talented friend, Jason Watson, made some videos for church that are definitely worth a see:

New videos

Janelle is the voice of Katie, and Janelle and I co-wrote the scripts for both “How to Raise Your Parents” vids. I think there are going to be more of them too. I’ll keep you posted on those.

At Truepenny’s request, I’m going to write a bit about my teenagedom with Jesus. This isn’t quite as entertaining as yesterday’s post, I’m afraid, but it’s not really dull or depressing either. It’s a happy middle ground.

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I was inspired by Truepenny’s post on her teenagedom with Jesus (which is quite good) to write my own similar story down. But, given that I’m still a Christian, it came off as really preachy. Don’t get me wrong—I like the faith, and it’s a huge part of who I am. It’s just that I got in enough preaching when I was a teenage fundamentalist, so I’m a little self-conscious about that now. Anyway, I’ve decided to just write about the puppets, which was the best part anyway.

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I just posted a Facebook note about this, but I wanted to go into a little more detail here.

For those who don’t know, I adopted the cause of the abolition of human trafficking a few years back. Basically, it’s the buying and selling of humans on the black market. Love146 is an organization dedicated to helping to stop this, so we organized a benefit concert for them last year and we’re approaching our second one (coming January 17).

Here are some quick facts from the Love146 website:

• 1 child is sold into slavery every 30 seconds
• Approximately 1.2 million children are sold annually
• $32 billion is brought in annually from human trafficking
• $28 billion is brought in annually from commercial sexual exploitation
• Humans are the second biggest trade on the black market, beating out weapons and trailing behind only drugs

The concert’s website is here. (Notice the striking similarity to this site. You’ll never guess who designed it.) If you live in the KC area and you feel compelled to help with this cause, please help promote this concert. If you have a blog, blog about it; if you go to church, tell them about it; talk to people at work or in bars.

The goal isn’t just to have a successful concert, but to start a movement in the Kansas City area. Already, we have a strong student group forming. (It’s a national group based out of the KC area.) Last year, we had some people talk to local publications about refusing to advertise unlicensed massage parlors (a common front for slave prostitution). Just a few years back, they shut down one of these massage parlors in Overland Park that was filled with trafficked humans.The movement is starting. We need members.

If you’re not in the KC area, check out Love146, which focuses on abduction prevention and aftercare, and International Justice Mission, which works on a macro level with governments and law enforcement agencies to make trafficking harder for traffickers. There’s lots you can do.

The point is that people have to know about this. It can’t be kept America’s dirty little secret any more. Trafficked women are pimped out in the Adult Services section of Craigslist every day in hundreds of cities across the nation, and hundreds of these “massage parlors” are in operation and are advertised in our daily newspapers, all because people don’t know not to stand for it. Most of the clothes we buy, even some clothes that advertise “Made in the U.S.A.,” are made by trafficked children in sweat shops.

I do not want any of you to come away after reading this and feel guilty about not helping. I also don’t want anyone to feel guilty if they choose another cause over this one. This is my cause, but I realize that there are other ones as well. The point is to do what you do well to do good.

Feel free to contact me with any questions you have on this. I’m pretty passionate about it, and I have some additional resources on-hand if you want any.

This is all in reference to a letter to Christians published by Focus on the Family speculating what kind of hell-hole America will turn into should Barack Obama take office. The letter is on their website here:

http://focusfamaction.edgeboss.net/download/focusfamaction/pdfs/10-22-08_2012letter.pdf

You can also get to it from their Election Coverage section.

If you don’t want to read it, it includes a fictional letter written after four years under Obama. Here are some of the things it speculates will happen:

• Gays will receive bonuses for enlisting in the military
• Open displays of Christianity will be banned in schools
• Hardcore pornography will be aired on daytime network television
• Guns will be outlawed, which will dramatically increase inner-city crime
• Terrorists will carry out attacks on four U.S. cities
• Gas will cost $7 per gallon, and the Democrats will be happy about this increase
• Liberals will shut down conservative talk radio
• Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com will stop selling Christian books due to a campaign of vandalism and hacking attacks from the gays

Toward the end, the letter states that electing Obama was “a mistake that changed the course of history.”

I’m not even going to attempt to argue against this. I think it stands on its own well enough. There are two really sad things about this, though:

1. It gives sensible conservatives a really bad name
2. It will probably work, to a significant degree

You can tell Focus on the Family how you feel here. Just please, please, please don’t give them any encouragement in thinking that they’re suffering persecution for their faith.

I thank God every day I go to church and don’t hear these guys.

“He is like a Mountie
He always gets his man
And he’ll zap you any way he can—zap!”

Silly or genius? We may never know.

Killer worship set by the Slackers of Valhalla! Jason Watson led, and I played the crap out of my congas. Also joining us were Cory Ryan on guitars, vocals, and keyboard; Amy on violin and vocals; Roberio on drums; and Wagner (I think that’s his name… seriously!) on bass.

I really miss playing with a whole band. Don’t get me wrong—playing with Melanie is great—but I miss playing with a larger group as well.

Ok, a quick aside: Franny totally just grabbed Zoey’s tail and bit it. I think she’s going to do it again. She did.

Anyway, I’m exhausted. Good job, Slackers! Good night!