Creative Project (Essentials Blue Fall 08)

For: The Institute Of Contemporary And Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephens University, Essentials Blue Online Theology Course with DAN WILT”

OK, here it goes, I asked Dan if I could present a song in Spanish, lots of Reverb! , lol, I hope you guys like it, as you can see it is only 4 phrases so it is very simple, I typed the song in Spanish but I also did it in English so you guys will know what it means.

Lyrics for the song

Oracion – Prayer

The title of the song is “Oracion”, which means “Prayer”. One of the things I heard during the course  that really made me think a lot was the idea that We need to have an “Allegiance” with the Lord.  Just as He is a an awesome God, good God, merciful God, we also need to see him with the respect He deserves.  He is the Creator of the Universe, the one who allows me to sub-create with him.

The song says: ” Señor yo vengo ante ti”, this is a affirmation wanting to come to him, YES I want to come to you. As I have been reading, posting, discussing during these few weeks, I keep hearing we need to be available for him, Yes, I want to be use by him.

Also, I know He is seeking for me, I am not just the only one seeking for him, wow, that is so amazing. He deserves our allegiance!. We Are The Pursued, not the the ones who pursue, He is the redeemer, He wants to restore our lives.

He wants to save broken world, This is about the God who acted, He suffered and gave his life for us. He is our Healer. He send his only son to die for us because He wanted to have a relationship with us, because He is a relational God.

The chorus says: “I praise and exalt you my Lord”, this is not a suggestion to worship God, this is intentional to worship him. Just like David made himself worship God I want my soul to never forget who He is.

Also,  the words Praise and Exalt makes us sing “together”, as a body, God is honored when we come before him and worship as a body.

I wanted to say thank you to Donny Cannoy for helping me posting my mp3!

mp3 song

Jorge\’s song

Dan, thank you so much for letting me be part of this, it really has been challenging ( the reading…) but it has been so encouraging in the same time, it is great to know that we are always leaning and it was an honor to learn together with you and all the  guys of The e*b course. Will, thank you so much for facilitating everything for us, the questions, the postings, the phone calls, etc, thank you so much!

Blessings to all in the e*b., love ya guys!

Nature of Worship (Essentials Blue Fall 08)

For: The Institute Of Contemporary And Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephens University, Essentials Blue Online Theology Course with DAN WILT”

Worship? Worldview? hmm! Reflecting the image??? wow! it is such a responsibility, but in the same time it is such an honor, thank you God!. Allegiance? I have NEVER thought of my relationship with God as an allegiance,    it is only to God. It is weird, I have been thinking s much about all this concepts and I think it is great. i am so grateful for the things I have been able to hear and read from all of the people from the class. It is great!

The Cross? I know that for me this is something I want to sing more often, about what JESUS has done for me, what He means to me, but not just me, but to ALL. This reality of the Cross should affect every worship leader, it is a life changing topic. I have been so exited about the cross topic, that I want to proclaim it and sing it more in my songs, I want to write more about it. I am also very exited because I know that this response is because of the things I have been learning in the course, so, thank you guys, because this also because of all of you.

Also, I mentioned in the Facebook post that “The Kingdom of God is about bringing the things of God to earth”. I really have to say this is something  that encourages me a lot, because I want people to hear about that ” rescue” of Jesus to us on earth, wow!. But also, this challenges me to know that I have a responsability as the songs I sing are teaching people, music is powerful. What I share to people is an influence, to teens, kids, etc. I need to teach the truth because God is a god of truth. As worship leaders, we need to remember we are not putting words in people’s mouths, because some people are not feeling what we are feeling, that is why is very important to always sing truth.

The thing probably grabed me the most is that ” IF WE DON’T KNOW WHO WE ARE DEALING WITH, THEN OUR EXPRESSION OF WORSHIP I CORRUPTED”, wow!. I need to know who I am worshiping to. it is a priority to put God always first in everything, He is the Kind, my Father. This was a great concept for this week and I am still trying to digest this.

Blessings to all!

1. NT Wright, Simply Christian, Part 3, Reflecting the image ( pg.185- 240)

2. iTunes U Others Audio/ Video, Don Williams ( How songs teach us)

3. Brown,  The wonder of the Cross (IW Master All, p.79)

4. iTunes Video, Wilt, Essentials in Worship Theology ( The Nature of Worship)

5. iTunes U Others Audio/ Video, Wright, (God centered songs)

6. iTunes U e*b Video

Fully Human (Essentials Blue Fall 08)

For: The Institute Of Contemporary And Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephens University, Essentials Blue Online Theology Course with DAN WILT”

The more I do this week by week I realized how much more I need to learn about worship, I think I said this same thing as a replied to Matt’s post, wow, we have not even scratch the top of this. Worship is so much more than what I think, hahaha!.

This week has been great and exiting, one question came up was, in what way do I see us as we worship God?, I think it is very easy to take for granted the great responsibility we have as worship leaders, the job we have is great, we are call to encourage ( AND WHAT I MEAN WITH ENCOURAGE IS: ” NOT JUST SAY GOOD JOB TO PEOPLE, BUT, TO ENCOURAGE IS TO HAVE THAT COMMITMENT TO SEE SOMEONE GROW, TO INVEST IN THEM AND PUT THEM FIRST THAN US“).

Chapter 11 of “Simple Christian” by N.T Wright starts talking about What does his kingdom means to us? do we give  worth to it?  What is worship? ” is to acknowledge of something or someone“. Also Steve Robbins mentions a quote from C.S. Lewis, who said that giving ourselves to praise results in a “glorious release of the inner being”. There is great consequences as we worship together, as a body. As I read the book and  see the creation as Dan describes it, I am encouraged to worship the Lord because of what He has done. In p.151, N.T Wright gave the example of drinking wine from a real glass of wine, what I understood from it ( and I hope I understood right!) is that we need to take full advantage of knowing God, like tasting wine in a plastic cup is not as good as tasting it in a real glass, that  is the same way worshiping, we need to go all out in the presence with “THE BEST” ( I hope this made sense!).

Page 157 has a great quote about the habits of Worshiping together, it says: “What matters is not so much HOW we go about it as THAT we go about it“. Wow, this is awesome, what I get from this is that I need to do it with all my heart, but not just by myself, but in a corporate way,in community. Again, this is stuff we hear all the time but is great to hear it again.

Also, I was  listening to Dan talking in the video (Dan Wilt, Week 3: Essentials Worship Theology – The Nature Of Human Beings, Audio), we hear again about God as Creator, and I can not get tired of hearing about this quality of God. All new things comes from Him, as I think about my job as Worship leader and School Worship leader in YWAM Costa Rica, we have a class about songwriting, I get so encourage when I heard Dan talking about God as creator, and one of the first things come to my mind is the fact that the Lord will still give us amazing songs, there has been amazing songs through the times, but the amazing things is that we have a Creative God, therefore we have the ability to create still amazing songs so we can worship together, I think that is so cool!.

We have to understand the responsibility of sharing those histories of God through the songs we write, through the poems, etc, Dan mentioned in the audio teaching that as people is discouraged we need to help them to stand up and seek the Lord. Also, God wants to born new songs in us! so we can lead the congregation to worship God. WE ARE REDEEMING TOOLS ON EARTH!.

This week was fun!

1. Steve Robbins, The Doctrine of Man and The Worship of God (IW Master All, p.77)

2. NT Wright, Simply Christian, Part 3, Reflecting the Image

3. Dan Wilt, Essentials Worship Theology, The Nature of Human Beings Section 3.

4. iTunes U e*b Video, Essentials Worship Theology: Humans as subcreators, Image Bearers, Community and Salvific Storytellers.

Heaven and Earth meet (Essentials Blue Fall 08)

“For: The Institute Of Contemporary And Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephens University, Essentials Blue Online Theology Course with DAN WILT”

One of the things more impacting about the reading of N.T Wright’s book “Simply Christian” is when he says Heaven “is not just a future reality”, wow. For me this is so profound because Heaven is not just that place were we will go someday, but it is a present reality. God wants to meet with us right now. Yes,We are his temple, but His desire is that there will be an overlapping. N.T describes in p.64 how we see this in the Bible, ex: Abraham keeps meeting God, Jacob sees a ladder between Heaven and Earth, Moses discovers he is standing on Holy ground, etc. When I read this there is a thought that comes to my mind: ” Lord, please do that with me”, ” would you please do something like that as I am leading worship?”.  I think our desire to is meet God like that.

Another amazing thing about this chapters of the book, is when it says: ” The Kingdom of God is about bringing the things of God to earth”, this is great and so true. I am so blessed and encourage d to keep going. I am so encouraged  because I want people to hear about that ” rescue” of Jesus to us on earth,  this is because He loves so much.

God Creator, God is a big God! like Dan said in the video,, can you imagine what it takes to create the Universe? but God took the time to do it, wow. As we lead worship, we are opening something, a meting place between  God and people. God as King, He deserves the worship because of the things He has done, starting from the creation, when we worship we proclaim that his Kingdom prevails over everything, this is our alliance to him. God as Trinity, this attribute shows me He is community, He is relational, it is not just about himself, but about making us feel involve with him, this is because He loves us so much. It is not about a social status: Jesus went to visit the poor and the rich, He loves everyone. God as Savior, He wants to safe what was lost, He wanted to safe the broken world, This is about the God who acted, He suffered and gave his life for us. “God is seeking for us, we are not the seekers”.

Thank you guys so much, thank you for your comments, it is like eating something together, it’s been very enriching to see the wisdom of others, keep it up guys. I will make sure to post a video next time.

1. NT Wright, Simply Christian, Part 2, Staring at the Sun ( pg.52- 140)

2. iTunes U Others Audio/ Video, Don Williams ( Who is the God we worship)

3. Williams & Brown,  Who is the God we worship? (IW Master All, p.282)

4. Wilt, Essentials in Worship Theology ( Section2)

5. Eddie Gibbs, Time in a bottle ( IW Master All, p.250)

6. iTunes U e*b Video, Wilt, Essential Worship Theology: God as Creator, King, Trinity and Savior.

The Echoes & Why Theology? (Essentials Blue Fall 08)

“For: The Institute Of Contemporary And Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephens University, Essentials Blue Online Theology Course with DAN WILT”

As I think about what I have studied, about the first four parts of ” Simple Christian” by N.T Wright, about the Four echoes of God in the world, wow, It helps me understand how there is importance in each one of them. As I think how relationships is a very close topic to me and I think in how I want people to know about God, to know who He is, to know what He has done and He will do and He is the same for Generations (Psalm 100:5 “For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations”) I realize that there are other important areas like: “For the Beauty of the Earth”, “Human spirituality”,  “Justice – putting the world to rights”, there is so much truth in each one of them. When I think about my roll as a worship leader, I am challenged by God to come out of my safe place of singing songs about my relationship with God, about what I feel,  and sing about the things people also have in their hearts, their passions.  Not just my relationship between God in me, you and Him, not just the relationship  topic, but other things we have in us, like I said before, like the other echoes.

Why Theology? Don Williams says something really cool, ” God is Truth, and because He is truth, we can’t sing false things about a God who is Truth”. As we write songs we need to know what we are writing, that is the reason Theology is important, we need to worship in the TRUTH, we need to be “intentional as we sing about the kingdom of God” as Williams says. It is a responsibility to write and sing the Truth.

To sing the truth is something we should never take for granted, that (”taking things for granted”) is a topic The Lord has been speaking to me for a while now, even for simple things that we see everyday, I need to be grateful for everything, his mercy. In the aspect of Theology, I can not take it for granted, it is a responsibility to sing the Truth of God and his kingdom, what He has done for us as his children, the sacrifice of his Son. This week has made me to reflect a lot about my worship leading, not in a bad way, but in a very good way.

Good Theology or bad Theology??? I am challenged and encouraged to follow Truth. It is not just about what I feel, but influence also comes from what I know about God. I want to be a world changer, and that comes from Truth. God is Truth!.

1. NT Wright, Simply Christian, Part 1, Echoes of a Voice (Introduction- pg.51)

2. iTunes U Others Audio/ Video, Don Williams ( Why Theology?)

3. iTunes U Others Audio/ Video, Brenton Brown ( Theology and The Worship Leader)

4. Wilt, The rise of the Worship Artisan

5. Wilt, Essentials in Worship Theology ( Section 1

6. N.T Wright. Recovering Biblical Worship ( IW Master All, pg. 95)

got it up and running!

Ok, here we go with the EB FALL 08, This is going to be fun!