Serendipity

Serendipity is described as being “the occurrence of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way”. That was the case for last Sunday’s Worship Café. Our previously booked artist was not able to come (meaning, of course, that it wasn’t serendipitous for her) and at the last minute we had to arrange a substitution.

Nico Boesten filled in, supported by Michael Donley on guitar and Eric Funk on drums, and the trio did an amazing job. Nico played some original music plus cover tunes by artists such as Bruce Cockburn, Phil Wickham, Van Morrison, and even Ben Harper (yep). A couple of classic hymns rounded out the afternoon, and I know everyone in the café enjoyed the whole hour.

Why do I say Nico’s appearance was serendipitous? Well, I’m sure our previously booked guest would have been very good, and would have led us in a great time of worship. But I like Nico’s approach to worship, and I always find his playing and singing, and song selection, to be consistently refreshing – I like it when he’s booked here. Our recent attempts at rebooking him haven’t met with much success due to his busy life and other reasons, so his willingness to step in and help us out at the last minute meant that we were able to slide him in (along with Michael and Eric) and have a great Sunday afternoon of worship. A refreshing time of worship.

It feels sometimes like the world is getting faster and faster, even on Sundays. That might be just because it’s December, and that holiday gift-giving deadline is approaching swiftly. Whatever the case, the chance to interrupt the flow of the world for a bit, nab a warm drink, and sit back for a good break in a great atmosphere of worship makes Sunday afternoons at the WC seem more and more appealing.

Next Sunday is our final worship session of 2010. We’re very much looking forward to having Heather Clark and Kim Smith join us for an afternoon of Christmas songs from their own Christmas albums. And this won’t be a bunch of songs about Santa, I’m sure! I’m really looking forward to it. A great way to end the season. How serendipitous.

December at Worship Cafe

It’s that time of year again; the trees are barren (well, mainly – the early snow caught some of the lazy leaves still hanging around), the ground is white, the air is cold… and Christmas is almost here!

We just heard via facebook that Jodi King is unable to be with us this coming Sunday. She has a very ill family member, so our thoughts are with her. We’ll still have Worship Café, though, smack dab at 4PM Pacific. Who’ll be our guest? You’ll have to come out to see or tune in to find out!

December 19^th is our last Worship Café prior to the holidays. Heather Clark and Kim Smith will be bringing us a taste of the Christmas album they recorded together (Christmas Memories) plus Heather’s solo Christmas album (Christmas Eve). We thought it would be a wonderful way to embrace the real meaning of the season and give harried Christmas shoppers a way to relax over a warm cup of hot chocolate or coffee.

Christmas Memories on iTunes 

Percussion Persuasion

Acoustic guitarists have it easy when it comes to setup; don’t you think so? I mean, they come in and all they have to do is plug in their guitar. (Actually, I suppose piccolo players probably have it easiest of all, because they can fit their whole instrument, in its case, in their pocket or purse).

Percussionists and keyboard players have it much tougher. Lotsa gear, lots of cases, and usually things have to be assembled and placed on stands and linked together. Keyboards are heavy, too.

The hollow-ness of drums aside (meaning they’re lighter than keyboards), Scott Matthies, the percussionist who played Worship Café last Sunday with Graham Ord, puts keyboard players everywhere to shame. He showed up early to load-in his gear and let it warm up (yep, it was a cold and snowy day. The stereo-type of Canada persists despite all our efforts otherwise). Scott lugged in his tabla case, his djambe bag, his drum kit (all in separate cases), plus a large black case with all his stands. He had a table for his tabla and various percussion accoutrements, a stand for his djambe, and all the normal snare, high-hat, cymbal, and tom-tom stands and brackets that every drummer uses.

When Graham and Scott were playing, Scott had a way of playing tabla with one hand, djambe with the other, and adding a kick every now and again to propel the beat forward. He’d finish with the djambe and then pick up a shaker of some kind to play with one hand while he switched his other hand over to playing toms and cymbals (sometimes with sticks, sometimes just with his hands directly). Scott was in such fine form that he even had one of the sound guys asking him about tabla lessons. It was very impressive and effective.

It was a great worship time. Graham shared a lot of stuff between songs, talking about things that were on his heart and giving background insights about songs he was playing.

Afterward, Graham said he’d really enjoyed the worship time. He said he’d felt the presence of God quite strongly, and found the whole afternoon refreshing. The response in the café seemed like everyone agreed with him.

The online audio only worked on one channel, for some reason. The replay is up on the site this week, and the audio is working fine for that – feel free to check it out if you missed the live event and want to enjoy a great guitar & percussion worship time.   Worship Cafe

Graham's not here today

Fraser Campbell was from out of town, so I had no idea how many people would be at Worship Café yesterday. The Streaming Café is closed on Sundays, so they only open the café doors when we show up to set up the gear for the worship time.

Funnily enough, we had people coming to the door even before the café was open this week. Not a lot of people, mind you, but people. One of the early comers was Jennifer Jade Kerr, who has lead worship at Worship Café twice now. She said she’d met Fraser at The Gospel Music Association’s music week in Calgary at the end of October, so when she saw that he’d be at Worship Café she decided to swing by and check it out. Turns out Jennifer had come in third place in the GMAC’s performance showcase event – congratulations, JJK! She also told me that Mark Tromsness (another WC alumnus) won that same event, so he’ll be off to Nashville next year as part of his prize.

Two other early-comers to the café thought it was Graham Ord leading yesterday; it wasn’t, though. Graham’s on next week. There were half-a-dozen people who knew Fraser from his time up in Vanderhoof, so they came to reconnect with him. These folks weren’t expecting to see Graham Ord, which is good, because Graham wasn’t there. He’ll be leading next week.

Usually there is some kind of connection between the folks who show up for Worship Café in person; they know each other and made plans to be there together, or they know the worship leader from somewhere, or things like that. Every once in a while there’s someone who comes to the café just because they’ve decided to, not because someone they know is going to be there. There were a couple of young ladies at WC yesterday in that latter category; they knew about Worship Café, and even though they didn’t know who was leading, or if any of their friends were going to be there, they decided to come out, grab a coffee, and just enjoy the atmosphere.

It is a good atmosphere for that, actually. As the weather grows colder and the days grow shorter, the café is a great place to stay warm, hang out, and just enjoy the company. That might sound like a plug, and it is. I’d much rather find myself at the Streaming Café (whether for Worship Café or just for coffee) than at either Starbucks or Second Cup. Coffee’s better, music’s better, and the bloggers leave you alone. It’s good all the way around.

Award winning worship

There used to be an ‘awards season” when it seemed like all the awards shows were on TV one after another, week after week. It’s not like that so much any more, as the different types of awards (Juno, Grammy, Emmy, Academy, Tony, Gemini and so on) all seem to be equally split between fall or spring, both early and late in the year.

We’re conscious of awards at Worship Café this month, but it’s not about us qualifying for any. It’s rather that it’s the season for us where the guests we’ve had recently (and coming up shortly) have been nominated for different awards.

We had the pleasure of hosting Mark Tromsness this past Sunday, one half of the band Colors and Tone. Their self-titled debut album is nominated in the category “Rock Album of the Year” at the Canadian Gospel Music Association’s Covenant Awards, which will be held later this month in Calgary.

On October 17^th we will be hosting Daniel Bremnes, a worship leader from Salmon Arm, BC, whose new album is also up for a Covenant Award this year; “Your Strength” is a nominee in the category of Modern Worship Album of the Year.

The last Sunday in September we had Jon Buller as our worship leader. Buller is from Vernon, and his latest album, “Light Up The Sky”, is also nominated in the Modern Worship Album of the Year category at this year’s Covenant Awards. Buller is also a finalist in the Christian/Gospel Recording of the Year category at this year’s Western Canadian Music Awards, which run from October 21 to 24 in Kelowna.

Does being nominated for an award mean the worship is really, really good? Well, I think that comes down to us as individuals, more than anything else. Am I zoned in? Am I focused on God and on worshiping Him with my whole heart? If I am, then that will play a much larger role in whether or not the worship time will be really good – and I have to remember, too, that I’m not the audience, as a worshipper: God’s the audience!

I’ll save any further pontificating for a future blog. Just wanted to mention that this is award-nominated worship leader season at Worship Café – hope to see you online!

Instrumental Worship?

Jon Buller was at Worship Café this past Sunday, and for one number his band (Dan Oldfield and Aaron French) played an instrumental version of "I Exalt Thee". I found myself thinking about worship in relation to instrumental music.

We know, of course, that worship is more than music. Yet as believers we choose music as one of the primary means of worshiping, at least in groups (i.e. "corporately"). There's something about the gift of music that transcends the 'cerebral only' (our brains, our thinking processes alone without emotion) and draws us more as "whole people" into a place where we can worship more fully and completely.

So, is that worship based on the lyrics of the music, or the music part of the music? Can instrumental music be worship music?

In Sunday's case the song was "I Exalt Thee", a well-known worship standard. Even though the two musicians played with skill and grace and imbued the identifiable song with extra substance and flair, the melody was still clearly recognizable. It was relatively easy to still sing the words (inside one's head, anyway) along with the instruments. Therefore even though the number was instrumental, it was still possible to worship God with the lyrics ("For Thou, O Lord, art high, above all the earth... Thou art exalted far above all gods..." and so on).

But what about when there are no lyrics to the music? What about when the instrumental music is purely instrumental, written and intentionally sans lyrics? Can it be called worship music? How about if it's purchased at a Christian Book Store, or if it's released on a 'Christian' label? Does that make it worship music?

Or, on the other hand, what if the instrumental music is written by a Christian and released on CD through a record label that's just a standard label, maybe known for jazz or even new age music; does that render the Christian composer's work as being not Christian, and therefore not suitable for worship?

Let's stretch those questions a little further: can 'secular' instrumental music be used in a worship context? If you showed up at church next Sunday and the sound guy was playing Pat Metheny for the pre-service music; would that be non-worshipful?

It's an interesting philosophical trail to wander down. Tell me what you think - I'd love to hear what you have to say on the topic.

In the meantime, you can check out this instrumental worship track from the September 25 worship set at Worship Café.

French & Oldfield's take on "I Exalt Thee" 

Authenticity in Action

The parable of The Good Samaritan has a lot of things to teach us. There’s truth about racism, the obvious truth about ‘Who is my neighbour?’, and, some might say, even a dire warning about taking shortcuts through unfamiliar territory (okay, maybe the last one not so much…).

One thing I see in it is the truth about being authentic. The Priest and the Levite (read: ‘pastor and worship leader’, or ‘minister and facilities manager’), who each passed by the beaten-up man on the other side of the road, illustrate how easy it is for each of us to fall into the role of being a ‘professional believer’ without letting the words of Jesus actually change our lives in any way. That’s not a good way to operate.

It’s always refreshing to see someone operate in fidelity to their faith. When what someone says – or sings about – lines up with what they profess, especially when they think no one is watching, I find it makes me smile.

Last time Jennifer Jade Kerr was at Worship Café she illustrated this truth without being aware of it. Jennifer had been a guest worship leader in January, and returned to lead again in May. In between those two gigs I was reviewing old video files, and I saw I had filmed her as part of a project where adults contribute time as mentors to help kids in elementary and junior high school.

That’s what made me smile. As part of this project (“Heroes Okanagan”) she was giving her time without anyone really knowing about it. Sure, the other three volunteers knew about it, and the kids in the classroom knew about it, but no one outside of those parameters knew anything; no one who could ‘help build her career’ as a worship leader or children/youth pastor knew what she was up to. She was basically just doing it because she wanted to make a difference in some kids’ lives.

The second time Jennifer led at WC she blazed into the Café from a car wash where she was helping the youth from her church raise money. As soon as she was done the worship set she left to go back and help wash cars again. That in itself was cool to see – but that was a fairly public event where lots of people from her church would have been in attendance. The gig she did with the kids in school, though, was done far away from the public eye.

I liked that.

You can find an archive of Jennifer Jade Kerr’s worship times on the Worship Café website. Just look for her under the ARCHIVES tab at the top left of the page.

And join us again for live worship every Sunday afternoon.

In the meantime, be real.

Log in to Worship Cafe to see the archive.

Up and running

Hard to believe we’re already way down the road in our calendar, booking artists now for Worship Café’s October dates. But we are, which means in a couple of weeks school is going to be back in session, stores will be gearing up for Thanksgiving and Halloween, and long days of laying out in the summer sun will be behind us.

Rats.

At Worship Café, though, we’ll be kicking things off in a good way come September with Nico as our first post-summer worship leader. He’s been to the Café a couple of times previously with his buddy Ari, but this time it’s Nico in his own right.

Nico B in an earlier visit to WC

Nico left Kelowna (home of Worship Café) several years ago to engage as a worship pastor down in the USA. He formed a stellar band while he was in the US, and his recordings from that era are really good. When he moved back to Kelowna a few years back he stepped out of music for a bit, and we’ve all been glad that he’s seen fit to pick up his guitar again.

If you’ve never been to a Nico-led worship session before, you can expect lots of groove, lots of rich husky vocals, and lots of truth. Nico’s not one to do fluffy songs for the sake of singing something nice – but he sure does deliver well with the material that’s in his heart.

Nico will be the first worship leader after our summer break, and he’ll be getting underway at 4PM on September 12. Hope to see you then…

The soul of rock and roll

I remember as a kid looking up Rock Music in the World Book encyclopedia. I think it was the 1978 edition. Remember when encyclopedias were actual physical books?

According to WB, Rock and Roll was born from a blend of R&B, Soul, and Gospel music. If that’s the case, then we got a true experience of that on Sunday June 27th with the visit of gospel-playing John Lee Sanders to the Worship Cafe.



Raised in Memphis Tennessee, and with years of the Louisiana and southern States gospel music scene under his belt, John Lee Sanders has been a blues man for years. He tours either on his own or with a band, primarily playing the piano but also adding in powerful blues tenor sax from time to time.

His “played-with” list reads like a textbook on who’s who in the music business, with John Lee Hooker, Long John Baldry, Stevie Wonder, Willie Nelson, Jimmy Page, and Huey Lewis among the names you’ll see there. John Lee actually replaced Elton John as the music director/keyboard player with the touring Long John Baldry outfit.

John Lee says the heart of what makes him tick musically is Gospel Music. Raised in the church but then experiencing years of the lifestyle of a touring blues musician, Sanders told us, on Sunday, how he was faced with a crisis of soul several years ago when his new record label encouraged him to do a Gospel album. John Lee knew he wouldn’t be able to record the songs with any degree of authenticity if his life didn’t line up with what he was singing, so he grabbed the opportunity that was presented to him and got back on track in his life with God.

On Sunday John Lee started off with the classic gospel song Mary Don’t You Weep and followed that up with number after number of gospel tunes, ranging from originals or songs written by friends to gospel arrangements of hymns such as Amazing Grace and His Eye Is On The Sparrow. Confident piano playing that supported a perfect blues voice made for an afternoon of great Gospel music... it was a perfect way to wind up the Spring session of Worship Cafe prior to our summer break.

We’ll be featuring previous shows and a loop of previous worship leaders during our summer months. Join us again in September for new experiences of live worship music every Sunday on your computer at 4PM Pacific.

John Lee will be rebroadcast all this week at www.worshipcafe.net


- Malcolm

Hybrid worship

Hybrid cars: seemingly esoteric a few years ago, but all the rage in the current environment. Two power sources, one gasoline and the other rechargeable electric, share duties to power one vehicle forward.

We’ve seen a lot of hybrid worship artists in the Worship Café over the last few weeks. Just one power source, mind you, but two different tracks on which the artists run. Kim McMechan, Andrew Smith, and Ari Neufeld, to name a few, all pursue careers as musicians and singer/songwriters in the non-church arena, yet all have graced our stage at Worship Café as worship leaders.

 They don’t fit the typical slot of ‘worship leader’, in that most of their repertoire does not consist of cover versions of worship songs known by believers everywhere. Probably most of them would even hesitate to call themselves worship leaders.

But as singer/songwriters who also engage the rest of the world face-to-face with their art, they bring a heartfelt authenticity to the table when it comes to leading worship. Kim, Andrew, and Ari each have gut-level songs that speak from and to deeper issues in life than one normally hears addressed on a Sunday morning. Their songs, even though they’re not necessarily ones we’d all sing along with, resonate with truth.

Am I saying more typical Sunday-morning worship leaders don’t operate in authenticity? Not at all. I’m one of those myself.

I’m saying that these artists, in the context of the Worship Café, have shared deep and precious inner thoughts with us as the viewers, both in their songs and in their spoken lead-in to songs. They’ve touched on topics, including depression and wrestling with God, that are not the common ingredients of a more ‘typical’ Sunday morning time of musical worship.

The book of Psalms includes a number of  laments, songs written out of angst or inner turmoil. Rarely do we hear songs based on these passages, even though it’s clear the ancient Hebrews were not afraid to wrestle with God one-on-one over things which weighed them down. But I’ve heard songs at Worship Café which could be called laments.

So what is it about Worship Café that allows these artists the freedom to talk and sing about things they’d perhaps normally reserve for the non-worship concert stage? I don’t know; it might be just that we’re meeting in a coffee shop, and the environment is free enough that everyone just feels safe. Like I said, I don’t really know – but I know that I like it. And I’m sure hoping it will continue.

New Folk

What does it mean to win a Kerrville New Folk award at the Kerrville Folk Festival?

Well, for one thing, it puts you in the shoes of other performers who've gone on to much broader recognition: Steve Earl, Lyle Lovett, Nanci Griffith, David Wilcox, to name a few, have all appeared as finalists in the competition.

For another thing, it marks you as having really stood out in the crowd. A massive amount of entries come in, and each year the Festival only allows the first 800 entrants they receive to compete.

And what has that got to do with Worship Café?

Andrew Smith was a Kerrville New Folk award winner in 2006. It's a fitting accolade for someone who's written songs from the depth of his being for years. One of the songs Andrew played in the competition was "Rite of Passage", a song about his son's coming-of-age and heading off to university. Years earlier, that same son was the underlying current in Andrew's worship CD entitled Through My Emotions, which explored the darker side of faith: is it okay to question God when someone you love is deathly ill and no prayer seems to make a difference?

When I've heard Andrew's songs over the years, it seems to me that he's been on a real journey. I guess all of us are, but few are as candid about it as Andrew is. His songs serve as markers along the way, almost a roadmap for the pilgrimage.

His last few albums (the guy's got four or five solo recordings plus at least two other collaboration CDs) are logged as Folk, and some of his earlier ones would be considered Worship CDs. Yet no matter the genre, in each album you'll find honest writing that explores the human condition, wrestles with belief in the context of real life, and thoroughly celebrates being a man, a husband, and a father.

At Worship Café on May 9th it was sublime to hear Andrew doing songs from across that spectrum. The simplicity of some of his classic worship songs like I Come Undone were the perfect counterpoint for newer and more intricate numbers like Turning to Stone. Fans of Andrew know he's discovered the beauty of traditional songs, too, as evidenced by his version of Stephen Foster's Hard Times Come Again No More. Yeah, he's discovered the beauty, and he brings us along for the view.

I found it very refreshing.

If you missed the live worship time with Andrew, you can find the full session in our archives at worshipcafe.net - and, by the way, it makes great sonic wallpaper to have on while you're working away at your computer...

Wow! Person!

When something good happens from out of the blue, you can just enjoy it. When it happens twice you can start thinking there’s a pattern forming.

Nico and Ari were at Worship Cafe on May 2, and I’m starting to see a pattern. This was their second appearance, having been with us back on February 21, and once again the response to their worship session was very favourable.

I realize part of the buzz was simply the energy of friends reconnecting. The Cafe was full of what appeared to be friends of either Nico’s or Ari’s – or both – who apparently hadn’t seen each other in ages; a number of people were catching up with each other over coffee before the session started, comparing notes as to what they’d been up to over the last while and so on. I was in and out of the Cafe several times doing the tech setup for the webcast, and it seemed like every second person through the door of the coffee shop was met with a greeting like, “Wow! Dorothy! I haven’t seen you in like forever! How are you? Where are you living now?”.

(No, every second person wasn’t named “Dorothy”, but I had to personalize that phrase somehow. It just wouldn’t have sounded good if I’d written, “Wow! Person! I haven’t seen you in like forever...”)

There was also a significant international component to the in-house crowd, too, due to a large group of primarily European students who are in the area attending a local ministry school. They weren’t old friends with anyone, of course, but they seemed to really enjoy the vibe of the coffee shop setting for the worship time.

But the main component of the worship time, Nico and Ari, were very refreshing to listen to. Even without the buzz of reconnection happening in the Cafe, the session would have been enjoyable and meaningful because of these two.

Ari led out on a few songs with Nico on the drums, and then Nico strapped his guitar on to join Ari out front for the next few songs while Eric took over on the kit. Richard joined the others with his cello and lent his support by adding bass lines, classic cello textures and rhythmic counterpoints I didn’t know you could even get from a cello!

Nico and Ari mentioned that they weren’t totally comfortable in the “worship” environment. Ari does a lot of playing, but it’s usually as a folk artist. Their lack of comfort, however, was misplaced: the content of their original songs, and their words spoken between songs, spoke volumes about how much they each process on a spiritual level. Nico’s vulnerability near the end of the session, in particular, caused a lot of people to sit up and take notice; despite the fact that a number of the writers in the book of Psalms lay bare their souls about hard stuff as well as praise-worthy stuff, we’re not that familiar with worship leaders doing that here in the 21st Century. And everyone I spoke with afterward said they found it very impacting. We could all use a good dose of honesty every once in a while.

As always, the worship session with Nico and Ari will be playing on the website all this week (www.worshipcafe.net), and their appearance back in February is available in our archives.

Worship as a lifestyle

In the Christian community we often use the term “worship as a lifestyle” – meaning, of course, that worship goes beyond what we do in our gatherings together (i.e. singing, reading the Bible, praying, and so on).

It’s true. Not only is worship something we “should” every day during the week, it actually is what we do every day during the week: the way we live our lives, the things we focus on, give our energy and money to, stress about; those actions literally reflect what or who we worship.

“Worship,” the English term, is from an old English word “worth-ship”; it carries the meaning of “attributing worth to something or someone”. The way we spend our time and energy and money and focus during our day and week shows what and who we attribute worth to.

Based on that, we could theoretically turn that whole phrase around and still be accurate: rather than “worship as a lifestyle”, we could truly say, “my lifestyle shows what I worship”.

Hmmm. That’s kinda scary, actually. With that in mind, reflecting on the choices of where I’ve put my time, energy, and money this past week reveals more to me about what I worship than I’d wanted to know.

More often than not, unfortunately, it’s we, ourselves – or the things in our own little world – that come out on the top of that heap. My ‘disposable’ money? Spent on me and my interests. Time? Spent on me and my interests. (Okay, I know for you it’s different. I’m just familiar with my own tendencies…). Sure, I give money to good causes, and I volunteer; but if I compare what I spend on myself to what I give selflessly to others, unconnected to my own interests, I see a clear propensity toward self-interest. Would people be able to convict me as a God worshipper based on the evidence they find? I don’t want to know the answer to that.

To my way of thinking that’s one reason why having focused times of worship are essential, periods in which we consciously think about God and our relationship to Him. Those times bring an intentionality to the focus of our lives that would be missing otherwise. Worship as a lifestyle? Yes. Worship as an intentional focus for right here, right now? Yes –indispensable! Whether we’re singing songs, reading Scripture (or poetry or other prose that draws us to focus directly on God) or praying, moving into intentionality about worship encourages us to let the truth of God permeate our very beings.

Only when that purposeful focus happens regularly, when that permeation of God-truth occurs consistently, will my lifestyle reflect that heart of worship with more constancy.

That focused and deliberate time of worship doesn’t have to be all about music, of course. Not everyone even likes music! Perhaps the unconscious equating of ‘worship’ with ‘music’ is what leads some people to declare their loyalty to the concept of ‘worship as a lifestyle’.

At Worship Café we’ve had the joy of hosting Filid, a fluid time of worship which incorporated poetry, historic narrative and reflection as well as music. The full worship session is available in the archives. It is not a typical Sunday-morning evangelical demonstration of worship, by any means, but Filid does effectively move us outside the box of expected musical expression and across the lines into reflective and contemplative worship which only sometimes involves music. Check it out, if you’re so inclined. www.worshipcafe.net - and look for the button marked “Archives”.

Worship as a lifestyle? Worship is a lifestyle; my lifestyle reflects my worship. Intentionality, chosen times of focusing my heart and mind on God and my relationship with Him, will go a long way toward helping my lifestyle reflect a heart of true worship.

Princess Di

The Café has been quite full the last couple of weeks. It’s been great. It’s different than being in a worship session on a Sunday morning in church somewhere, but it’s sure sweet when there are a bunch of people all engaged in worship or reflection or enjoyment of God all at the same time in the same place. (Is it okay to use the word ‘bunch’? Perhaps I should have said ‘flock’ of people…)

This past Sunday Graham Ord was at/on Worship Café. This was his second visit, the first having been in January of this year.

The first time he was at the Café Graham was joined by Scott Matthies on percussion. Scott was with Graham again this time, and they were joined by Dave Moore on bass. Dave is an old friend of Graham’s; Graham introduced him as being the best man at his wedding. There is something about old friends doing music together – doing worship together – that is very engaging (although, truth be told, Dave did object to being labeled “Graham’s old friend”; he made it quite clear he was Graham’s young friend).

In one of the many interesting points of the session, Graham shared the story of when his oldest daughter was in hospital back in England years ago as a really young toddler. While he and his wife were there at their daughter’s bedside, concerned for their child and feeling helpless at not being able to do anything for her, Princess Diana made one of her visits to the children’s ward. Graham told us how amazing it was to be sitting there talking with the Princess, comparing notes on their kids, chatting about what each child liked to eat, and so on. It was very surreal, Graham said.

It made me think of worship. We get to hang around with royalty (the ultimate in royalty, in fact) and can chat about anything that’s on our mind. Sometimes we formalize it, sometimes it is completely casual. (I’m learning, actually, that formalizing is not necessarily a bad thing; for a while there it seemed like anyone who formalized worship in any way, shape or form was being très un-cool and not really being true to the heart of God. I’ve come to realize I was being presumptuous in thinking that. So I’ve discarded that mindset to a large extent. Nuff said.) (Okay, here’s a bit more: you can check out the Filid in the Worship Café archive for an example of a more formalized time of worship. That was cool).

Anyway, we get to hang around with royalty. And even though in worship we are often expressing our love and appreciation for what’s been given, even when we’re not expecting anything in return and are happy just to tell our Creator how much we love Him, we somehow come away changed. I don’t really know how that works. But I’m very glad when it happens.

The last song in Graham’s set was his well-known “The Lord is Gracious and Compassionate”. He shared a brief story of how the song came to be (which I won’t relate here), and it made me think how great it was when God smiles and a guy who walks in humility writes a song which impacts so many people.

If you missed the worship time with Graham feel free to catch the rebroadcast. And see you next week.

Heather Clark

We had Heather Clark as a guest on Worship Café April 4th. We hadn’t realized back when we booked her that April 4th was Easter Sunday, but it was. And we wondered how that would affect the turnout.

The turnout, as it turned out, was great. Martin was going around just before the session began putting out extra chairs, and it’s a good thing he did. The only seats left open were a couple right up at the front, and at least two points during the webcast we saw the onscreen silhouettes of people sneaking past others to fill those last spots.

Heather brought only her son Josiah and her friend Holly along for the drive down from Kamloops. Often she leads worship with a full complement of bass, drums, electric guitar and a couple of vocalists, but for this session she elected to go with just herself and her piano.

And what a good choice that was – it was a perfect arrangement for the café. The sound was not at all overpowering and was still room-filling with the strength of Heather’s voice and the fullness of her piano.

Right at the outset Heather told us all that she had two basic ways of doing worship: one being with a band leading at conferences or other large events, and the other being just her and her piano when no one else was around but Jesus. And she said her intention was that the Worship Café session was going to be the “just her and Jesus” mode – and it certainly seemed that everyone in the seats was able to connect with where the session headed.

With a great blend of original songs along with spontaneous vocal and instrumental meanderings and songs by other songwriters, Heather’s worship session was (to me) both relaxing and refreshing. We were trying out a new placement for one of the cameras, and I personally really enjoyed working on getting good shots while being in worship mode; I knew several of the songs from before, which made it easy to connect, and there were several new-to-me songs which gave lots of opportunity to head in new directions in worship.

Toward the end of the session Heather brought her song “Deeper” into play (which I’ve always liked) and spent a good amount of time just floating on that for a while. Some of the “classic Heather Clark” songs that are used a great deal by other worship leaders are more corporate and ‘punchy’ in their scope (“Open to me the gates of righteousness and I will go through them… and I will praise the Lord…” with the strong 4/4 beat going on the kick and bass and piano, for example) so it was a real treat to have Heather lead in this much more “Song of Solomon” type intimate setting on Sunday.

I know that everyone in the packed café really enjoyed this more up-close-and-personal time of worship because it felt like most of them came up to Heather and various members of the crew to tell them so. I trust those who logged in online were treated to the same level of connection as we were, and I can’t see why that wouldn’t be the case – I watched the rebroadcast stream again this morning and found it just as bona fide as the live event on Sunday.

Heather will be on the home page streaming window all this week, so feel free to log in if you missed Sunday’s time and you’d still like to catch her worship session. And once we get the session archived, it will be available with all our other past sessions in the Worship Café archives at www.worshipcafe.net (Sometimes that takes a while, but it’ll be there eventually).

See you next week…

Leading at the Worship Cafe

I had an interesting experience this past weekend when the artist we had booked for Worship Café phoned on Saturday to tell us he was sick and would not be able to join us on Sunday.

Actually, he didn’t phone ‘us’, he phoned (obviously) the booking guy. And then the booking guy called me to ask whether I could sub in.

As one of the producers at Worship Café, I sometimes think about stuff like that: what if someone cancels fairly last minute? Should we put some type of explanation on the site for those who’d decided to tune in because they enjoy the particular worship leader who was booked on that day? Should we do a re-broadcast of a previous worship session so that there’s at least something up and running on the site?

The deeper consideration, of course, relates to the “live” aspect: we archive all our worship sessions in full at www.worshipcafe.net so that they’re available to anyone who logs on; therefore, if we simply re-broadcast a previous worship session to replace a live event on Sunday, how is that building up the ‘live’ community aspect of Worship Café? (Answer: it’s not, really…) Will people who have logged on interact with one another during an archived re-broadcast like they often do during an actual live worship session? (Answer: don’t really know for sure, of course.)

One of the supporting characteristics to my being a producer of Worship Café is that I, too, am a worship leader. That helps with understanding where we’re going with the site, and it really helps with interacting with the artists we’ve booked. This isn’t an alien world to me, this worship leading thing, it’s something I’m quite at home in.

Back to the conversation with the booking guy. All of the above thoughts were running through my mind as we were trying to decide what to do to replace the guest who was sick, and in the end I said that I’d fill in. The live aspect could at least be preserved that way.

And that’s where the interesting experience came in. It’s one thing to produce the live sessions, making sure the equipment is working, helping the sound guys set up, ensuring the camera shots are working and the worship leader is ready to go, etc. etc., but it’s another thing to be on the other side of the camera. This time I was on the other side of the camera.

A worship leader wants to connect with those he or she is ‘leading’ in worship – there’s something about the group dynamic that works better when some kind of connection is established; but how does one go about doing that with an online group of worshippers? Who is online? Where are they connecting from? What’s going on in their life at the moment? Those are among the things that one has a much greater sense about when one is physically in the same room with everyone all worshipping together. It’s a little different when one is leading in a room where the people are visible plus at the same time on a website where people are logged in but are not visible. Will the online viewers connect? Will this work for them too?

In the end, though, it all came together. I know for sure we had online viewers from the East Coast (because they posted comments in the live feed) and I know we had people in the Café out here in the West. So we had at least a national gathering. And now I know more of what it feels like for the person leading worship, so I’ll be a more experienced coach when it comes to producing the shows.

Onward and upward. Os, as Aslan said, “farther up and further in”. Now that this week is behind me I’m really looking forward to the next few weeks of worship at Worship Café with Heather and Graham and Norm and others… should be good.

Why 'streamed' worship?

I was thinking about this the other day. Why are we doing ‘streamed’ worship, with so much emphasis on the ‘live – in real time’ aspect? I mean, really, wouldn’t it work just as well to just post videos or music to the site rather than going to all the effort of making sure everyone can access what is happening in real time?

I suppose there are different answers for that. For me, one of the answers is that worship is about connecting. It’s about connecting to God, of course, but it’s also about connecting to one another. To get pedantic, even for the ancient Hebrew people (during their journey through the wilderness, for example) heading to the Tabernacle was a group celebration; they were in this thing together.

There’s something different about being part of a group of people engaged in musical worship than there is in having my iPod on and engaging in some one-on-one soaking; in the group context we are all sharing the same concepts about God at the same time, or singing the same words to Him at the same time… even if I’m lost in my own world in a group worship context, I’m still ‘connected’ to those around me; I’ve still experienced the same ‘worship time’ they have, even if my journey was personal and distinct from what the others around me experienced. And that only happens in the collected multi-person situation (meaning when I’m with other people!).

On occasion I’ve left a particularly impacting public worship time with a real sense of awe and wonder, and I’ve known – through talking with others – that other people had the same experience. That became something we shared. That doesn’t happen from my ‘alone’ times of worship; I can still connect to God and have a profound exchange with Him – and I wouldn’t trade those times for anything – but I can’t really share that with anyone around me. Only in the group setting is there the chance to share the experience of true worship with other human beings.

It’s the same for this new-fangled idea of online live worship, I’d say: if I’m not able to be in the Café with a bunch of friends while the worship session is happening, I can still connect with the larger group by experiencing it ‘live – in real time’ on my computer.

At the bottom of the Worship Café viewer there is the “Live Feed” section where anyone is free to add comments. Usually the comments I see there are from people saying what they liked about the worship time they just ‘watched’. (We’re thinking of changing the title on that little posting section from “Live Feed” to something like “What’s on your mind?” or something like that, because we’d really like it to be a place where we can all interact about what we might be hearing or sensing or feeling while the live worship is actually happening). Some of the coolest times have happened when someone will make a comment on the post and then someone else will reply to that comment; a back-and-forth dialogue will emerge, and there’s something so cool about knowing that I’m “live”, in the moment, in real-time, experiencing something with someone from the other side of the country (literally) or wherever, and that we can communicate about what’s going on for each of us in that moment. That’s very cool. Even if I’m not part of the dialogue and am just seeing an exchange develop between others, it is still a wonderful sensation to know that other people are interacting in this worship time that I’m a part of right in this moment.

There is a lot of talk in the media and pop psychology these days about how we as a society are growing more insulated from one another, even while online social networks develop and get stronger, et cetera. To my way of thinking, live streamed real-time worship is a way we can actually connect. Connection, after all, happens in real time, not in posting a message and receiving a reply a couple of hours or days later. To me, the privilege of having a site like worshipcafe.net where I’m able to interact with worshippers from all over right in the moment when live worship is going on, even if I’m not in the same room as the others are, is a valuable concept that I want to both enjoy and explore even more.

To me that’s worth the effort it takes to stream this worship live right while it’s happening.

What about you? I’d love to hear what you think about this…

 - Malcolm